


Albus Potter and the Old Grimoire

by QuietDove



Series: The Albus Potter Series [1]
Category: Harry Potter - Fandom, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Action/Adventure, Coming of Age, Friendship, Gen, Harry Potter Next Generation, Next Generation, School, Sequel, Slow Burn, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:42:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 50,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22528789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuietDove/pseuds/QuietDove
Summary: Albus Potter is going to Hogwarts!With a head full of anxiety, and doubt, the second child of the world famous Harry Potter is about to begin his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.He will meet new friends, mysterious teachers, and start to uncover a mystery dating back to before the founding of the magical school...
Series: The Albus Potter Series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1620916





	1. The Empty Compartment

#  **Chapter One: The Empty Compartment**

“It’s no use, there’s nowhere to sit” Rose said with an annoyed huff. 

It was true, the train was full and compartments were now filled with students, young and old. Albus looked around to see if there was anywhere with space and he spotted his older brother, James, darting into one of the compartments. He decided to follow his brother inside, pulling Rose with him.

James blocked his brother with his arm, “Um, no offence Al, but I was hoping to catch up with my own friends,” he said. The compartment he was in had several other third year Gryffindor’s.

“But there is nowhere” Albus replied in protest, “Can’t me and Rose just stay with you for a bit?”

But James wasn’t budging, “No, go and find somewhere to sit, you’ll just have to be less of an unsociable git” 

With that James pulled the door across before Albus had a chance to reply. He turned to face his cousin but she was speaking to two other girls, presumably first years. Albus sighed; things weren’t going his way so far.

Rose turned to her cousin, “These two say they have a spare seat in their compartment, you don’t mind if I go with them do you?” she said the last part with genuine remorse, as if she knew she was doing something wrong.

“Sure, go with them, I’ll just find somewhere and sit down” An annoyed Albus replied. 

He turned around walked down the aisle, hoping to find anywhere that had a spare seat. James was right; he was just going to have to make conversation with a random student. Somewhere towards the back of the train Albus saw his cousin Victoire sitting with her friends, there was a space in that compartment, but it would be pointless asking, she was a seventh year, and head girl. 

So Albus continued until he found a compartment with space, it was right at the back of the train and it contained a nervous looking, short, mousy haired boy. 

He knocked on the door and the boy faced him with a look of terror on his face. “Hello” Albus said in as reassuring voice as he could manage, “Can I sit here, everywhere else is full”

The boy nodded slowly and looked down as Albus entered. He sat in silence for a good few minutes before he finally looked at him. It was then that Albus realized that it was up to him to initiate conversation.

“I’m Albus, Albus Potter” he said, offering out his hand. 

The boy reluctantly shook his hand but quickly withdrew. “I’m…I’m...Bertie, I mean Albert, well my real names Albert but everyone calls me Bertie…Bertie Hadham…” He said in a quavering voice before proceeding to stare at the floor again.

Albus was keen to continue talking, he wasn’t prepared to spend an entire train journey in silence. “So are your parents magical?” he asked.

Bertie shook his head, “No, they’re…what do you call them?” he asked.

“Muggles” Albus replied with a smile. “So you’re muggle-born, my Aunt Hermione is muggle-born too”

That didn’t seem to reassure Bertie, who merely gave a slight nod of his head to show that he understood.

Scratching his head Albus tried to keep going, “Were they surprised?” he noted the confused look on Bertie’s face, “Your parents I mean”

“Oh, yeah they were” Bertie said, “A great big man came to our house and told me that I was a wizard. My little brother threw a fit and the man gave him a bag of sweets, he seemed nice…”

Albus smiled to himself, “Hagrid…” he felt like he was getting through to his new acquaintance, “Did he take you to Diagon Alley? To get your books and a wand?”

Bertie smiled at last, “Yeah, that place was really cool”

At that point there came a knock on the compartment door, it was James. He walked in and sat down next to his little brother.

“Getting on alright Al?” he said “Nice to see you’re making friends!” he continued with a point at Bertie.

“Yeah, this is Bertie” he replied. “What are you doing here? Friends abandoned you?” he asked, tongue firmly in cheek.

James grinned, “Can’t I make sure my baby first year brother is ok?” he said sarcastically.

Albus rolled his eyes, “Well I’m fine so you can go if you want to” he said hopefully.

Noticing his brother’s discomfort James kept pressing, “I hope you’re not feeling nervous at all, I hear the Slytherin common room is really cold and damp”. 

“Shut up James! I wont be in Slytherin!” Albus shouted, he stood up to face his brother.

James laughed out of the door and back down the train, he shouted back, “Whatever you say Al!”

Slamming the door behind him Albus slumped back down. Bertie looked at him nervously, it was clear he didn’t understand what had just happened.

“Sorry about him” Albus said quietly.

Bertie leaned in closer, “What was he talking about? What’s Slytherin? Is it bad?” he asked.

Albus shrugged, “It’s a Hogwarts house, there are four of them. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Basically my whole family has been in Gryffindor and James has been going on all summer about how I’m going to be sorted into Slytherin” 

There was a nervous look in Bertie’s eyes; perhaps this information had made him more anxious about the school. He leant back into his chair and stared out of the window.

“Does it matter what house you’re in?” he asked

Albus shrugged in response, “My dad doesn’t think so…”

“Who’s your dad?” Bertie asked curiously.

In a quiet voice Albus replied, “Harry Potter”

Another knock came from the door, Albus feared it was James again but was relieved to see a kind looking witch pushing a trolley of food down the corridor. He stood up and opened the door.

“Anything from the trolley dears?” she asked

The trolley was full of delicious looking sweets, pasties and sandwiches, a paradise for a young and hungry wizard: Chocolate frogs, Every Flavour Beans, Pumpkin Pasties. Albus was spoilt for choice but gave a quick glance to Bertie who was looking the trolley with a confused expression. 

“I’ll have two chocolate frogs, two pumpkin pasties and two boxes of chocoballs please” he asked, handing over a couple of gold coins. 

He sat back down and handed half of the wares over to Bertie, who eyed them suspiciously.

“Are these wizard sweets then?” he asked

Albus nodded, “You’ll have to watch the chocolate frogs, they tend to jump around a bit” he said as his friend carefully opened the packaging.

Bertie glanced at him, “Jump around?” he said nervously.

“Don’t worry about it too much” Albus replied

So Bertie proceeded to open the box containing the frog and, unsurprisingly, the contents leaped out and hopped around the compartment. Its’ would be consumer attempted to catch it but it eluded him. 

The door of the compartment slid open revealing a blond haired, slightly freckled girl, already wearing her Hogwarts robes, stood in the doorway. She rolled her eyes at the scene in front of her, grinned, and pulled out her wand. 

“Impedimenta” she said clearly while pointing her wand at the frog. There was a flash of blue that caused the frog to slow down mid jump and was now floating in the air. The girl stepped up and grabbed it before handing it to Bertie, who was rather red in the face at this point.

He looked up at the girl, “Thanks…” he said hurriedly before returning to his seat.

The girl smiled kindly, “No problem” she looked towards Albus, “Making friends already Al?” she asked with a smile.

“Yeah” he replied, “Thanks Victoire”

Victoire walked out of the door but turned back into the compartment, “It took James much longer to get talking to people, you’d be surprised just how shy he was in his first year” with that she closed the door behind her and briskly walked away down the train. 

After a few moments of quiet Bertie piped up, “Sister?” he asked, he was holding the bottom half of a chocolate frog at this point.

“No, cousin” Albus replied, “There are quite a few of us at Hogwarts. That one was Victoire, she’s in her last year, and has just been made Head Girl”

Bertie stared at the door wistfully, “She seems nice”

Albus smirked slightly, “Don’t get too attached” he said teasingly, “She has a boyfriend”

“Oh, I didn’t mean…” Bertie replied, now red in the face. His attention turned back to the chocolate frog box, he put his hand into it and pulled out a small card. Turning it over his eyes widened as he read the name. He looked up at Albus opposite him, “Potter…Harry Potter...” he said quietly, “This is your dad isn’t it?”

With a slight inclination of his head, Albus responded, “Yeah…that’s him”

Bertie read the long description on the back of the card; it detailed all of Harry Potters achievements. Surviving the killing curse, youngest seeker, killing a basilisk, winning the Triwizard Tournament, and defeating Lord Voldemort. A list of things that Bertie simply didn’t understand, but he understood this much, whoever Harry Potter was it was obvious that he was an incredibly famous wizard. 

Just as Bertie was about to get lost in his thoughts the door of their compartment opened for the third time in the journey, the curly ginger hair gave away the fact that it was Rose. She had changed into her Hogwarts robes and had a broad grin on her face, she then took a seat next to Albus.

“Hi Al, you ok?” she asked, Albus nodded, “We’re so nearly there, I cant wait any longer” she tried to suppress her excitement.

Albus noted this, “Calm down Rose, we’re still over an hour away. What happened to those girls you were with by the way?”

Rose sat up, “Oh they’re nice, it’s just that we’ll all probably be in different houses anyway so I thought it was ok to come and talk to you for a bit”

By now Bertie had guessed that Rose was yet another cousin but assumed that this one was in his year.  
“I’m Bertie” he blurted out, his face immediately going a shade reminiscent of the girls name.

Fortunately Rose took it in her stride, “It’s nice to meet you Bertie, I’m Rose Weasley” she offered her hand, which Bertie rather gladly shook

“Are you Albus’s cousin?” he asked

Rose nodded, “Yes, have you met any other of our relatives then?” she continued.

“Just a couple” he replied with a slight smile.

“James came in earlier, so did Victoire” Albus took over.

“I saw Victoire earlier too, haven’t spoken to James yet though” Rose said.

Albus scoffed, “Lucky you…” he spat

Rose sighed, “Don’t worry about him Al! You’ll be in Gryffindor just fine, trust me!” 

Bertie looked at the two while they continued their conversation. It was curious for him, to listen to two people who had grown up in this world he was about to step into. All the talk about houses and strange sweets only felt like a scratch on the surface compared to the rest of the magical world. This particular train of thought was broken when the blonde haired Victoire knocked on the compartment door, mouthing the word “robes” at them before she walked away.

“We must nearly be there!” Rose squeal excitedly. “I’m going to find the other girls and leave you to get changed” she waved at them as she left the room.

“Excited?” Albus asked

Bertie frowned, “I guess so…” 

The train pulled into Hogsmeade station not long after that, the long journey having flown by. The doors of the train opened and a booming voice rose above the excited murmur of the students.

“Firs’ years!” the voice said, “Firs’ years over here! Everyone else, to the carriages!”

The source of the voice was a hulking lump of a man, ten feet tall at least. A bushy beard concealed much of his face and his shaggy hair fell down the back of his head. He stood at the end of the platform holding a large lamp. 

From within the crowd of people Albus spotted Rose and, pulling Bertie with him, walked beside her. She didn’t acknowledge his presence, instead she continued talking to two other girls. 

As soon as they reached the man Albus immediately knew who he was, “Hello Hagrid” he said with a grin.

Hagrid grinned back at him, “Ello Albus, you well?”

“I am, thanks Hagrid” 

Bertie stared at him, not fazed in the slightest, “You took me to Diagon Alley in the summer!” he said enthusiastically.

Pondering this Hagrid replied, “Did I?” he stroked his beard, “Oh yes! Bertie isn’t it?”

“Evening Hagrid!” another voice shouted, James had just walked past.

Returning the welcome briefly, he turned back to the group of 40 or so first years who had now gathered around him. They all looked rather anxious, dressed in their black, ill-fitting, robes. 

“Righ’, follow me down to the boats” he said as kindly as he could.

The boats were small and wooden, with no oars visible. It was three students to each boat and Albus made sure he shared with Bertie, a serious looking blonde haired boy took the third seat. 

As soon as everyone was seated the boats smoothly left their moorings and glided across the large lake. The castle itself quickly came into view, though it was difficult to miss. Looming above them atop a hill, the lights in the windows appearing like stars in the sky. Amazed gasps and chatter filled the air as the young students too observed the school. 

An excited “Wow” came from Albus’s left, clearly Bertie was as amazed by the sight as everyone else.

Soon the boats pulled into a small covered harbor, with Hagrid leading them out and up a long set of stone paved stairs heading up the side of the mountain. At the top of the stairs was a courtyard in the middle of which was a fountain, which threw out a steady stream of water. They were led into a small entrance hall, in front of a large pair of ornate wooden doors.

A small, well-kept wizard stood ahead of them at top a box. He had greying hair and a pair of glasses on his nose. Hagrid walked up to him and gave him a curt nod before continuing on into through the doors, the students tried to catch a glimpse of what was beyond them as he went through. 

The small wizard spoke, “Welcome to Hogwarts young witches and wizards!” he spoke in a high pitched but soft voice. “My name is Professor Flitwick and I am the deputy head of Hogwarts School” he coughed slightly, “Now, in a moment I will lead you through these doors and into the Great Hall. Once you are inside I will call you up one at a time to be sorted into your house, they are Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff” 

A quiet chatter broke out as the students tensely discussed which house they would be in.

Flitwick coughed again and the students were silent once more, “While you are at Hogwarts your house will be your family, you will earn house points for good deeds and lose them for bad ones. At the end of the year the house with the most points will be awarded the house cup”. He glanced back at the doors and took a deep breath. “Now if you would like to follow me”


	2. The Sorting Hats Song

#  **Chapter Two: The Sorting Hats Song**

Flitwick gracefully pirouetted around and flicked his wand at the set of doors. They swung open to reveal a vast hall; braziers on the walls hung from gargoyles between tall, thin windows that revealed the dark blur sky. There were four tables in the room, representing the four houses. As Albus walked through the middle he received a slap on the back from James. The main attraction amongst the first years however was the ceiling; it was dark blue with the moon and stars standing out through the thin cloud that hung in patches, a perfect representation of the weather outside.

****

The chatter died down at they came to a stop at the front of the staff table. Albus was immediately able to pick out Hagrid and give him a quick smile, which he returned. He also recognized a tall round-faced professor with soil on his nose, Neville, or Professor Longbottom, as he would be known while he was at Hogwarts. 

****

His gaze shifted to what was immediately in front of him, it was a tatty leather hat sat on a wooden stall. Around the hall there was an intense atmosphere of concentration, all apparently centered on the grubby hat. Much to the surprise of the first years, it began to sing.

****

_To some I may seem old and battered  
To others I’m just a rag  
And I’d like to say I’m rather flattered,  
But I don’t like to brag._

****

__

****

__

****

_I’ll sort you all just wait and see  
You won’t be disappointed  
I tell you where you ought to be  
My judgment isn’t disjointed_

****

__

****

__

****

_Will you be in Gryffindor?  
Home of the brave and sure  
Or maybe even Ravenclaw?  
Your mind will make you secure._

****

__

****

__

****

_Slytherin may be your lair  
If ambitious is your aim  
And Hufflepuff is always there  
Your loyalty is not your shame._

****

__

****

__

****

_All these houses may seem like  
They’re enemies divided.  
But I tell you now they’re quite alike.  
And my wisdom is provided. _

****

__

****

__

****

_Four houses are stronger as one.  
That much has always been true.  
I promise you that can’t be undone  
If you stay at Hogwarts right through._

****

__

****

__

****

_So listen to my words you see.  
I’ve given you this warning.  
And I hope that you agree.  
I must protect the heads that I am adorning._

****

The sorting hat went still and there was a rush of applause from the rest of the students and staff, although the first years were all too confused to respond. Albus heard someone on a table say “It needs to work on those lyrics, sloppier than last year”

****

After the applause died down Flitwick composed himself and unfurled a scroll, stepping onto a box as he did so. “Now, when I call your name please step forward and sit on the stool”

****

Consulting the list he read out the first name, “Georgina Appleby”

****

From behind a Albus a short brown haired girl slowly stepped forward and sat on the stool. Flitwick placed the hat on her head where it sat for a few moments before shouting, “Ravenclaw!” Georgina beamed and rushed down to join her applauding housemates on the middle table next to the Gryffindor one. 

****

Matt Bingham and Amy Barnes both went into Gryffindor, Albus noticed Rose applauding and smiling at Amy, she was clearly one of the girls she talked to on the train. 

****

Hufflepuff got its first student in Robert Collins while Ravenclaw gained a second with Tommy Durham. It wasn’t until Luther Dorrian that Slytherin had a student.

****

The next few students were rattled through, one each into Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw and two into Slytherin. Then the name “Albert Hadam” was called out. Albus heard a gulping to his left and Bertie slowly made his way onto the raised platform and onto the stool. Professor Flitwick put the hat on his head where it sat for almost three minutes, leaving Bertie to get visibly more nervous as the time went on. Eventually it declared, “Gryffindor!”

****

A look a relief spread over Bertie’s face as he heard the sorting hats judgment. He sprinted to the Gryffindor table and took a seat next to James while shaking hands with the two other new Gryffindor’s. Albus smiled back at his friend but looked towards the front again as the next student was sorted, a Slytherin called Terry Holloway, then another Slytherin followed him, Eva Jervis. Sophie King was sorted into Gryffindor, and was evidently another of Rose’s train friends given her delighted reaction, and Hufflepuff gained Cain Lakewood and Niamh Loughlan. Ravenclaw was next, Tom Little joining their ranks, followed by Gryffindor, with Shaun McLaren the latest to go there. 

****

“Scorpius Malfoy” Professor Flitwick said. The blonde haired boy who’d joined Albus and Bertie in the boat stepped up to the stool. He looked sullen and rather bored, his expression gave nothing away as the hat was placed on his head. Almost immediately the hat bellowed, “Slytherin!” and that was that. He picked himself up and sauntered down to the far left table, Albus watched him all the way. He recognized him as the boy his uncle Ron had pointed out at the station.

****

Two Hufflepuffs, a Slytherin and a Ravenclaw went through the process next followed by Leon Newland going to Gryffindor and Sam Newell joining Ravenclaw.

****

Flitwick spoke again, “Albus Potter” this was it, the moment Albus had been stressing over all summer. He took a deep breath and stepped up to the stool, the hat was placed on his head and he readied himself hear the sorting hats decision.

****

But a curious thing happened, the hat spoke to him, _“Your father was right you know, you do have a say in all this”_

****

It was little more than a whisper inside his head but it was enough to relax him. He thought hard about Gryffindor house, the badge, the colours, James, Bertie, Mum, Dad. 

****

The hat chuckled, _“Gryffindor you say, well that’s obvious. You have all the traits to make a good Gryffindor that is certain, but then again everyone has a little bit of each house inside them don’t they…”_

****

Albus kept on thinking hard, he was certain; Gryffindor was the house for him. _“Please, I don’t want to go anywhere else”_ he tried thinking in specific sentences now.

****

_“You don’t have to do that Mr. Potter, It’s all laid out for me to see”_ The hat fell silent again. _“You certainly have the nobility and bravery to make a fine Gryffindor, but those things so often go hand in hand with a desire to prove yourself, Slytherin would suit you well with that. With your family, it’s natural that you would want to live up to their own reputations. A solid case for either Gryffindor or Slytherin then…”_

****

Albus started to panic, surely he wasn’t going to end up in Slytherin? He thought about how James would tease him, mercilessly. It was all well and good that his Dad wouldn’t care, but could he name another Potter or Weasley who’d been put in Slytherin?

****

_“Oh ho ho. You are certainly anxious, aren’t you, Mr Potter? You are not the first student I have adorned who’s been worried about what house they’re in, and you will not be the last. Whilst I pride myself on making the correct decision, the only person who truly knows where they belong is the young witch or wizard underneath me. So, tell me, which house should I call out?”_

****

Albus took a deep breath. It was always Gryffindor, he would be happiest in Gryffindor. He hoped the hat understood his thoughts, he closed his eyes as he awaited it’s loud bellow.

****

The hat chuckled, _“I understand perfectly Mr Potter. If you believe that Gryffindor house is best for you, I shall oblige. Good luck”_

****

Out loud this time the hat declared, “Gryffindor!”

****

Albus was beaming from ear to ear as he raced down to the Gryffindor table to join Bertie and the others. His brother gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder and congratulated him, while Bertie looked like he would never be sad again such was the size of his grin.

****

The ceremony continued at the front of the hall as Tessa Rainier joined Slytherin and Martin Rowe joined Hufflepuff. More and more students were sorted until only two remained, Rose and a tall boy. 

****

“Rose Weasley” Flitwick said. Practically jumping up to the stool she eagerly put the hat on. Her grin though quickly dissipated, now her mouth was thin and worry washed over her face. She shook her head slightly and breathed in heavily. To Albus it was obvious that she was putting her opinion across about which house she wanted to be in.

****

Eventually Rose relaxed and the sorting hat shouted, “Gryffindor!” thus releasing her to join the rest of her new house. She took the seat next to Albus and gave him a quick high-five before giving James the thumbs up. Further along the table Victoire waved at them both. 

****

The final student, Monty Yorke, was sorted into Slytherin and the hall fell into a quiet murmur. Albus managed to exchange a couple of words with Rose

****

“What happened up there?” he asked.

****

Rose shook her head, “I’ll tell you in a minute”. She turned to face the front of the hall.

****

From behind the table a middle-aged man stood up from the ornate gold seat that sat in the middle and made his way to a lectern that had seemingly popped out of nothing. He wore long, smart, navy blue robes with a small pointed hat on his head. Underneath this was a head of wiry dark gray hair and his face was wrinkled with age and wisdom.

****

He spoke in a commanding but welcoming manner, “To our first years I say welcome! To everyone else, I say welcome back!” His clipped accent gave away his age. “I’d like to welcome you all to another year at Hogwarts. To those of us who are new, my name is Professor Julius Selbit and I have been headmaster here for ten years now, to some that is a long time” he paused briefly and motioned behind him, “But some haven’t been here as long as me, at least in a teaching sense. Following the retirement of Professor Buboe last summer we have a new potions master this year. Please welcome Professor Septimus Marlowe”

****

He raised his arms towards a young looking male, with short, neat hair and thin glasses on his nose. He wore a smart, pinstriped jacket that made him appear older than he really was. Standing up he smiled and raised his hand to the students.

****

“I would also like to take this opportunity to remind students that the Dark Forest is out of bounds to all students and that Mr. Filch’s’ ban on joke products has been extended to include Screaming Parchment and Slug Grenades”. Albus could have sworn that his eyes turned to James as he said this. He continued,  
“For first years, flying lessons take place on Monday and Friday afternoons. Second years and above can sign up for Quidditch tryouts by signing up on their common room notice boards, they can also speak with their house captains for more information”

****

He took one final look around the hall and raised his arms, “Now the last thing to add is, eat!”

****

Clapping his hands the plates on the table filled with a hundred types of food, more than Albus had ever seen in his life. Roast chicken, pork, beef, lamb, broccoli, potatoes, carrots, and pumpkin. It was an incredible sight and he wasted no time in filling his plate, picking up two chicken legs, five roast potatoes, a couple of spoonful’s of carrots and covered in a healthy coating of gravy. Across the table Bertie too was enjoying the food on offer.

****

“This is amazing!” he said enthusiastically. “This is so much better than primary school dinners!” 

****

James picked up on the conversation, “Honestly, that ‘primary school’ thing muggle-borns talk about is really weird” he asked

****

Bertie spoke through a mouthful of broccoli, “You think so? Isn’t there a magic equivalent?” 

****

“No. That just sounds awful…” James answered

****

Another, pretty, blonde haired, first year joined in the conversation, “It’s not that bad” she smiled and offered out her hand to Bertie, “I’m Sophie King by the way” 

****

Bertie shook her hand quickly and turned back to his food with a red face, taking a piece of beef and putting it in his mouth.

****

Sophie looked at him quizzically, “And your name is?” she asked

****

“Oh” he replied, putting his knife and fork down, “I’m Bertie Hadham”

****

“Nice to meet you” Sophie responded before eating her own food again.

****

James observed the whole thing with a grin on his face, “Smooth” he said, leaning in closer to the diminutive boy. 

****

“Shut up James” Rose said with a huff.

****

“I’m just teasing Rosie” he replied with a mouth full of potato. “Besides, there are plenty of other girls for you now you’ve messed that one up!” he joked.

****

Rose shot him a scathing look; similar to the ones Albus’s mother often gave when he’d done something wrong. “Just because you had a girlfriend in your first year doesn’t mean the rest of us need one” she said.

****

Albus looked at his brother curiously, “Who was that?” he asked

****

James put down his cutlery and silently counted on his fingers, “Um, Martha Graham possibly…”

****

The boy sitting to James’s left nudged him and muttered, “Shannon Jordan” 

****

“Oh yeah!” James said, “Nice girl, Ravenclaw, bit dull though. How did you know about that anyway?”

****

Rose went red, “Teddy…” she said shortly

****

“What?” James replied, “When were you talking to him?”

****

She replied, “Well, actually, Teddy told Victoire, who told me”

****

Albus was grinning, “How did Teddy even find out? You were in different houses!”

****

It was James’s turn to blush, “He might have caught us snogging in the charms classroom on Valentines Day”

****

“Ha!” Albus exclaimed, “How did he manage that?” he asked brightly.

****

His brother replied with an irritated tone, “Well he keeps changing his hair colour, I didn’t recognize him. I thought he was just some random student when he walked past!”

****

Those in the immediate vicinity who were listening to the story fell into laughter. 

****

James continued, “And then he thinks it funny to cast a sticking charm on us, our mouths were locked together and we had to wait for Professor Flitwick to come back and separate us”

****

Rose spat out her pumpkin juice as James finished his story, soaking Albus in the process. “And I thought it was impossible to like Teddy even more!” she laughed.

****

On the other hand, James had a scowl on his face, “Speak for yourself, I could have killed him after that. I still have no idea how he was made Head Boy!”

****

James turned to his own friends and started talking to them leaving the first years in an awkward silence. They quietly worked their way through the food and waited until desert was served.

****

Bertie wiped his mouth with a napkin, “The hat nearly put me in Hufflepuff” he said, trying to break the silence. 

****

“What?” replied Matt Bingham, a tall boy with brown hair that hung just bellow his ears.

****

“Yeah, it was telling me how I’d fit in well there” Bertie said, “But then it changed its mind at the last minute”

****

Matt raised his eyebrows, “Weird, it didn’t even talk to me” he tucked back into his chicken.

****

At the end of the table a tall girl, Hope Okoye, addressed Bertie “I didn’t hear it talking to you”

****

“It was sort of in my head, like it was telepathic” he replied.

****

Albus nodded, “I had the same, I asked it to put me in Gryffindor”, he neglected to tell them about the whole conversation he’d had with it.

****

There was a general shock around the table, they all looked at Albus with strange looks. “You can do that?” a dreadlocked boy called Leon Newland asked. 

****

“Yeah, my dad told me that he did something similar when he was at Hogwarts” he replied.

****

“Who’s your dad?” Matt Bingham asked.

****

Albus looked down slightly and said, “Harry Potter…”

****

Most of the gathered first years looked at him in amazement. Everyone else, including Rose and Bertie, didn’t seem to mind. 

****

“Harry Potter? The Auror?” Leon asked

****

Matt waggled his fork at Albus, “Not just any old Auror, the head of the Auror Office!” he pushed his chest out, “My dad’s head of Magical Law Enforcement so of course Harry Potter has to answer to him” he boasted.

****

Rose couldn’t hold in her laughter, “I’m sorry! Your dad isn’t head of Magical Law Enforcement!” she wheezed. 

****

“Yes he is” Matt insisted, “How would someone like you know about the inner workings of the Ministry anyway?”

****

“Because my mum is the deputy head of that department, and her boss is someone called Robards” Rose replied, puffing her own chest, “I’ve never even heard of a Bingham in there”

****

Struggling to think of a response, Matt turned to forlornly stabbing his potatoes in silence. Albus shot a quick grin at his cousin and resumed eating his food, satisfied that they had successfully put down their new housemate.

****

“By the way Rose, what happened between you and the sorting hat?” he asked.

****

“Same as you, it wanted to put me in Ravenclaw but I told it that I belonged in Gryffindor” Rose replied. 

****

Albus smiled, “Good for you! I’m glad we’re in the same house”

****

Rose returned the smile, “Yeah me to, I’ll write to my mum and dad in the morning and tell them the good news”

****

“I better do that as well” Albus remarked, he directed the next question at Bertie, “I guess you don’t know how the post works around here?”

****

Bertie shook his head, “No idea” he admitted.

****

“It’s quite simple” Albus explained, “Just write them a letter and send it by owl. I think there are school owls somewhere that you can use”

****

The expression on Bertie’s face showed his confusion, “Owls?” he said to no one, “My parents won’t know what to do with an owl!”

****

James had been eavesdropping on the conversation and added his opinion, “Don’t worry about that, they’re quite persistent” he said, “Our family owl nearly broke a window when I didn’t let it in once”

****

“Pudding!” Matt exclaimed, the first time he’d spoken in a while. 

****

He was right though, the plates that had earlier held hot delights now contained a multitude of sweet treats, cakes, pies, tarts, ice-cream stacked up high. It was a forest of sugar and flavour. 

****

“Excellent!” James said while helping himself to a generous slice of chocolate cake.

****

The rest of the feast went by jovially with the first years joshing about their subjects and where they had come from, all enthusiasm from them. The older students meanwhile traded old tales from past years, as well as their hopes for this one. Despite the earlier bickering, Rose and Matt managed to get along much better towards the end of the feast, with Rose even laughing at one of his jokes. 

****

But soon enough it was time for the students to retire to their dormitories, following some encouragement from Professor Flitwick. From down the table a prefect called “First years follow me please” in a stern manner.

****

Not wanting to make a bad impression the young students leapt up from their seats and followed the prefect out of the Great Hall, ahead of the older students. Coming out of the hall they turned left and found themselves at the foot of a network of staircases. One detail about the stairs intrigued the first years, they were all moving. 

****

“Come on hurry up” the call came from ahead of them; the prefect was halfway up the first staircase.

****

“Moving staircases?” Bertie muttered, “How are we supposed to find our way around this place?”

****

Albus smiled at him, “It can’t be too difficult can it?”

****

In front of them stood Matt Bingham, who turned his head around, “Yeah don’t worry about it, if it gets bad we’ll just throw you off the side!” he turned back around and laughed, nudging Leon Newland who forced a smirk before giving an apologetic look to a now worried Bertie.

****

“Don’t listen to him Bertie” said Rose, who had heard the whole thing. “Matt’s an idiot”

****

Albus was shocked, “You made that assumption quickly!” he said

****

She shrugged, “He’s funny, but my god is he arrogant. Seriously, he spent most of the feast telling me about how his uncle slayed a dragon and that he has a robe made out of it’s skin”

****

“How do you know he doesn’t?” Albus asked with a raised eyebrow.

****

“Well I don’t, but its incredibly unlikely given it’s illegal to slay dragons without the express permission of the Ministry” she answered. 

****

Albus now looked at Rose squarely, “And you think he’s funny?”

****

Rose blushed, “Well…I was just being polite”

****

Before she could answer however they were stopped, they were now at the top of the staircase. A portrait hung in front of them; it depicted a large woman dressed in pink.

****

The prefect explained, “This is the entrance to the Gryffindor common room and this” he gestured to the portrait, “Is the Fat Lady”

****

Matt nudged Leon, “Nice original naming there!” he snickered. 

****

Turning to the portrait the prefect said, “Favete Linguis”

****

As he finished the portrait swung open to reveal a short passageway, beyond, which was a large, homely looking, room. Walking in it was easy to see which house it belonged to, red and gold draped the walls, with images of lions at every turn. On one side was a large fireplace surrounded by comfy looking sofas and dotted around the room were a number of leather seats.

****

Gathering in the middle of this room the prefect said, “Welcome to the Gryffindor common room, your home for the next seven years. Boys dormitories are up the stairs on your left and girls on the right. All of your belongings have already been moved up so I suggest you get yourselves settled in and in bed, your lessons begin at nine o’clock tomorrow morning”

****

With that the prefect left and the first years were alone in the common room, casually inspecting their new surroundings.

****

“This place is awesome!” declared Hope Okoye

****

“It feels so nice” said the brunette, Jessie Sears

****

Matt, as usual, had an opinion, “I think the fireplace in my house is bigger…” he said pointedly, leading to Rose rolling her eyes.

****

Eventually the first years grew tired and, prompted by the arrival of the older students, they retired to their dormitories. The dormitory was round, with a stove in the middle for heating. There were five, four-poster beds lined along the wall, one for each of the first years. Albus quickly pulled on his pajamas and climbed into bed, the first years were all too tired to talk and had done the same. But Albus didn’t fall asleep straight away, instead to sat up in bed and looked around the room, incredibly grateful that he was sat in the tall Gryffindor tower, rather than the dank Slytherin dungeon.

****

To Albus’s left, he heard Bertie snoring behind his curtains, to his right, Leon was silent and also sleeping. His eyes starting to droop, Albus pulled the curtains around his bed and got under the warm duvet, ready to begin his first day at Hogwarts School of Wtichcraft and Wizardry.

****


	3. Constantine

#  **Chapter Three: Constantine**

It was an earlier start than Albus was used to, Shaun McLaren, it seemed, was used to waking up at half past six. He was stomping around the room as if he’d been awake for hours. Still bleary eyed, he pulled on his robes and gathered his bag up ready for the day ahead. The common room was scarce and it was only the first year boys who were awake, so they immediately bagged the squishy sofa’s in front of the sofa to wait for their female compatriots to wake up, with the idea that they would all make their way down to breakfast together.

After some time had past, and after Matt had fallen asleep again, the girls entered the common room, which was now fuller than before.

“Morning!” a chirpy voice said.

Albus looked up to see the bright eyes of his cousin staring at him, “Hello Rose” he said, rubbing his eyes.

Sophie King squeezed herself in between Albus and Bertie on the sofa, “Been up long?” she asked

“Just a bit” a huffy Leon replied while glaring at a nonplussed Shaun.

“Well our classes don’t start for another hour and a half so we have plenty of time” Rose added.

A slightly befuddled Matt then spoke, “I’m hungry, I’m getting breakfast…”

From the other end of the common room a familiar voice called over to them, “Ah! There’s our first year clique!” James had joined them.

Three other boys followed him, all of who were known to Albus. There was the wiry Alex Martins, the stocky Jason Taylor and the curly haired Jack Mulland, who was James’s closest friend.

James extravagantly waved to the gathered first years, “Don’t mind me! I’m just checking that my little brother’s alright!” he pinched Albus’s cheek.

“Ge’roff me!” Albus said, hitting his brother’s hand away. 

“Not a nice thing to do” he said in mock offence before strutting away and out of the common room.

“Idiot…” Albus said quietly

After James’s intervention the group gathered their bags and made their way to the Great Hall for breakfast. It was a much less formal affair than the previous nights feast with students free to go in and out as they pleased. There was also a notable lack of teachers at the staff table, three that Albus saw. 

The first years sat down together and filled their plates, fried food seemed to be the most popular though Albus settled for a bowl of cornflakes. As they were eating a stack of paper came their way.

“Oh look, our timetables!” Rose said excitedly.

Albus picked up one and inspected it, grinning as he noticed that their first lesson was Defense Against the Dark Arts. 

“Looks good today, Defense Against the Dark Arts followed by Transfiguration. James said they’re both interesting subjects” he said with a mouthful of bacon.

Leon pointed to the final two periods, “Double potions though, that’s supposed to be difficult”

Shrugging, Albus returned to his breakfast, wolfing down the beans. “Who are our lessons with today?” he asked

It was Rose who answered, “Slytherin for Defense and Potions, Ravenclaw for Transfiguration” 

They quickly finished their breakfast and rushed off towards the third floor, having been pointed there by a prefect. The classroom was easy to find once they knew where it was and the Gryffindor’s found that they had arrived before anyone else, bar a single Slytherin student who was skulking in the corner of the corridor.

“Hello” Sophie said friendlily

The Slytherin turned around and inclined his head while raising the corners of his lips. He said nothing before he resumed staring into the middle distance, Albus recognized him as Scorpius. Feeling slightly awkward now, the Gryffindor’s quietly spoke amongst themselves for a few moments before they heard a chatter coming closer to them from down the corridor, the Slytherin’s had arrived.

In the corner Scorpius shifted around at tried to hide himself more, though the other Slytherin students didn’t seem that interested in him or the Gryffindor’s.

Until a tall dark haired boy spotted his housemate, “Oh, there you are Scorp” he said mockingly

“Caedus…” he replied quietly

Caedus strutted closer to him, backed up by a couple of tall boys. The other Slytherin’s stared with anticipation. “We missed you at breakfast, did you forget about our little arrangement?”

Turning his chin up at Caedus, he replied confidently, “There isn’t an arrangement, you can’t tell me what to do”

There was a murmur of discontent amongst the Slytherin students, who had now surrounded the lonesome Scorpius. Despite this he stood his ground, something he didn’t look particularly capable of. 

“You really are an idiot aren’t you?” Caedus sneered, “You know exactly why you have to do as we say”

Continuing to stand up to Caedus, Scorpius retorted, “Remind me then tough guy…”

This appeared to strike a nerve with Caedus who pulled out his wand and pointed it at Scorpius’s chin, a determined look in his eyes, “You know what you are, Malfoy…” he spat.

Just before it got messy however, the door of the classroom swung open, and Caedus quickly stuffed his wand away. Albus’s eyes widened at the man who stood in the doorway. A broad shouldered and tall man, with pale skin and grey eyes, his frame made the first years seem even smaller. His skin was rough and covered in scars, whist his hair was closely cropped and dark. Were it not for the inexplicably calming smile on his lips it would have been more advisable to run from this man.

“First years? Come in” his voice was deep and soothing. He stood aside to allow the students in, greeting each one as he did so.

Albus grabbed a seat next to Bertie and took out his parchment, quill and copy of The Standard Book of Spells, as did everyone else in the room.

“You wont need any of those today” the teacher said, “We’re going to be having a discussion, maybe a debate”. He took his position at the front of the room, next to a chalkboard. “I’m Professor Dario Constantine and this year I’ll be taking you through the very basics of defense, we’ll be covering simple defensive spells as well as dark creatures”. He looked around the room, “But sometimes I like to lead my classes in some friendly discussion, which is what we’ll be doing today”

He flicked his wand and pulled up a rather comfy looking leather armchair, which he settled in, before again flicking his wand and making the chalk write some words on the board. The board read ‘What do we mean by the Dark Arts?’

“That is your question” Constantine said, he then pointed to Bertie, “Could you stand up please?” Bertie sheepishly stood up, “What’s your name?” Constantine asked

“Hadam, Albert Hadam” he replied nervously

Constantine smiled, “Do you prefer Bertie?” he asked, to which Bertie nodded slowly, “No need to be so nervous, there are no wrong answers here. Tell me what the Dark Arts are Bertie”

Bertie swallowed, “Um, I guess dark magic?” he said uncertainly 

“That’s a nice place to start” Constantine replied, “But what is dark magic?”

Not knowing the answer, Bertie glanced at Albus for help, “I guess it’s bad magic” he eventually said.

From the back of the classroom there was an audible snort from Caedus, who clearly felt that Bertie’s answer was lacking. 

Noticing this, Constantine stood up, “You may sit down Bertie, well done” he said before turning to Caedus, “Your turn then Mr…”

“Fleet sir, Caedus Fleet” he said brashly.

Constantine nodded, “Ok then Caedus, what is dark magic?”

“Well sir” Caedus started, “Dark magic is a type of magic that is considered evil, such as the Unforgivable Curses”. Albus noticed something flicker on the Professors expression as Caedus spoke those words.

“Sir!” Rose’s hand had shot into the air

Smiling, Constantine turned to her, “Yes Miss…”

“Weasley sir, Rose Weasley” she said quickly, “I don’t think that definition is correct”

“Go on” he encouraged

Rose took a deep breath, “Not all dark magic can be considered evil, jinxes, hexes and curses are all considered dark but everyone can use those”

“A good point Rose” Constantine said, “Would anyone like to respond to what Miss Weasley has said?”

The students looked around at each other in silence, no one wanted to respond. But, eventually, Matt Bingham took the plunge.

“I agree with Rose sir” he said.

“Name?” Constantine asked shortly.

He stood up, “Matt Bingham sir”

“Go on then Matt”

Matt cleared his throat, “Well, like Rose said, dark magic is a very loose term. Dark wizards aren’t going to exclusively use jinxes and hexes are they? They’ll use charms and things as well, which is considered to be light magic”

Constantine grinned, “Well you two have made brilliant points there, your knowledge is very impressive for first years. Take 10 points each for Gryffindor”

Rose and Matt beamed and glanced at each other, Caedus looked on at them with a scowl. 

“Now then, lets move on. Miss Weasley and Mr Bingham both mentioned various types of spells, Jinxes, Hexes, Curses and Charms” Constantine said, pacing the front of the room. “For the rest of this lesson we’re going to be discussing how we define these spell types in preparation for using some in future lessons”

He pointed at Albus, “You, stand up and tell me the definition of a Jinx, and your name as well please”

Albus stood up, “Albus Potter sir, um, a jinx is a spell that does something irritating to the target”

Constantine nodded, “Very good Mr Potter, you’re James’ brother, yes?”

Albus nodded in reply, “Yes sir”

“I expect you know plenty of jinxes, can you name one?” he asked, with a knowing smirk

“What about the…” Albus paused to think, he was reminded of a spell Teddy had put on his brother last Christmas, “The singing jinx?”

Constantine smiled, “Yes the singing jinx, perfect” he wrote the word ‘Cantis’ on the board. “This one fits in with the definition of being irritating, but amusing” he turned back to the class and picked out Scorpius.  
“Name and jinx please”

“Scorpius Malfoy, and I’ve heard of one called the Impediment Jinx?” he said before quickly sitting down.

“Good example Mr Malfoy” replied Constantine, writing ‘Impedimenta’ on the board. “Yes this is a very useful spell to have in your arsenal. It can stop an opponent in their tracks” he looked over the classroom again, “Anyone else?”

Leon raised his hand, “Leon Newland sir, I think I’ve heard of the Knockback Jinx”

“Another fine example Mr Newland” he wrote ‘Flipendo’ on the board. “We will be hearing more about this spell in a future lesson” he said. “I think we have covered jinxes well there, three very good examples. In these three spells we can see that the definition of a jinx is very loose, as only the Singing Jinx really fits in with the ‘true definition’ of a jinx. A jinx is considered to be the mildest of dark magic, so lets look at something a bit more serious shall we. Hexes, any volunteers to give me a definition?”

Rose’s hand shot into the air, which Constantine noticed, “Miss Weasley, go on” he said

“A hex is a spell that affects something in a negative manner and causes major inconvenience to the target” she rushed of a dictionary like definition.

“Excellent, that is absolutely correct” Constantine said, “Would anyone care to give me the name of a hex?”

There was a silence in the room before Bertie nervously raised his hand, much to the surprise of those gathered there.

Constantine nodded at him, “Go on Mr Hadham” he said

Bertie spoke nervously, “I read about something called the Stinging Hex”

‘Where did you read that, may I ask?” Constantine replied.

Bertie picked up the Standard Book of Spells on his desk, “In here sir, its only mentioned once”

“I see, well spotted Bertie” Constantine said, impressed. “One of the few hexes we may look at this year, it causes someone’s features to swell up” he looked at the class again. “We wont be going into too much detail with the practical elements of hexes this year”

“What about curses?” asked Caedus

Constantine eyed him with slight concern, “Again, we won’t be looking at the use of curses this year. However, we will undoubtedly mention them at points when we are looking at the practicalities of defensive magic” he replied.

Rose raised her hand again, “Sir, what exactly will we be covering this year?”

“I’m glad you asked that!” Constantine flicked his wand and cleared the blackboard; new words took their place. “This term we will be focusing on the theory of defensive magic and will also start practicing a few basic spells. Term two is focused on dark creatures, pixies, doxies and the like. It is centered on how it is best to deal with them. The third and final term is a review term before you do your exams, but after those we will most likely do more practical work”. The board behind Constantine now these three points, “Does that answer your question Miss Weasley?”

“Yes sir, thank you sir” Rose answered.

From somewhere within the castle the deep tolling of a bell could be heard, seemingly taking Professor Constantine by surprise.

“Is that really the time?” he asked, checking his watch, “Well in that case, I have a short homework assignment for you. Please could you write down a quick definition of the five spell types please, I’d like that in next lesson. Ok, you may leave”

Albus packed his bag up and gave a quick ‘thank-you’ to Professor Constantine. He and Bertie then left the classroom, with Rose and Matt not far behind them. 

“So what did you think of that then?” Albus asked

Matt responded excitedly, “Brilliant! I hope all lessons are like that. He really seems to know his stuff”

“He seems nice, this year looks very interesting as well” Rose said

Looking at his timetable Bertie said, “We have a fifteen minute break before Transfiguration, does anyone know where that is?”

“Why would we know?” Matt snapped

Albus shot him a look, “Calm down he was only asking”

“It was a stupid question” Matt insisted.

Ignoring his housemate’s protests he turned to Bertie, “I think my brother mentioned that transfiguration is on the ground floor somewhere”

They then heard a voice from behind them, “There’s a courtyard on the ground floor, and the Transfiguration classroom is just off that” 

The four Gryffindor’s turned around to see that it was Scorpius who had given them that advice.

“Thanks” said Albus. Scorpius brushed past them and down the corridor, not looking back before he disappeared into the crowd of students ahead of them. Not wanting to waste any time in finding the courtyard they quickly asked an older student who nonchalantly pointed them down the hallway. 

When they did eventually get there they found it to be a pleasant and quiet area filled with grass and featuring a fountain at the center. The four perched themselves on a window ledge and were soon joined by Leon and Amy Barnes. 

“What do you think of the Slytherins?” Albus asked everyone

Matt responded first, “Seemed like idiots…”

Amy offered a more considered view, “To be fair, it was only that Caedus person doing anything”

“What was all that before the lesson as well?” asked Leon, referring to the fracas between the two Slytherins.

Albus shrugged, “Who knows?” he said, “But I don’t think they particularly like him, Scorpius that is”

To his left Albus felt Rose shifting around, “My dad says that the Malfoys are a bunch of pure-blood fanatics. They were Death Eaters you know. If I was a Slytherin, I wouldn’t like him” she spat

An awkward silence fell over the group, it was unlike Rose to be this way about someone.

“He seemed ok to me…” Bertie said uncertainly 

Amy nodded, “Yeah Rosie, it was those other Slytherins who were worse. That Caedus seemed awful” she said.

A shrug from Leon showed he was unsure, “Awful might be a bit much, but I guess the first impression wasn’t great”

Matt stood up, “I still think they’re a bunch of prats” he picked up his bag, “Come on, we have to get to Transfiguration”

*

Transfiguration, as it turned out, wasn’t anywhere near as interesting as Defense Against the Dark Arts. Their professor was a thin, middle aged witch called Professor Mutati. She was nice enough but spoke with a sharp, stern voice that demanded ones attention. Her lesson involved a very detailed explanation of the topics they would cover in their first year and a brief question and answer section, dominated by Rose.   
However, Albus was pleased to see that the Ravenclaw’s were a decent group of people, much more so than the Slytherins anyway.

Following the lesson Albus met up with Bertie to go into the great hall for lunch, closely followed by Leon with Matt and Rose further back and out of earshot.

“So that was ok I guess…” said Albus

Bertie looked at him, “I had no idea what she was talking about…” he said nervously.

“Neither did I, they’ll teach us all that stuff anyway” Leon reassured him.

The three Gryffindor’s sat down for lunch, a selection of sandwiches and savory treats. Albus immediately tucked into a ham sandwich and poured himself a goblet of pumpkin juice.

Bertie continued to worry, “But it’s all so…different, I’m used to maths and literacy, not learning how to turn a mouse into a matchbox…”

“Stop worrying Bertie”, Rose said, sitting down with Matt and Amy. “You’ll pick everything up quickly I’m sure”.

Still looking slightly unsure he helped himself to a sandwich, eating it silently. 

“So what do we think potions is going to be like?” Amy said, breaking the silence.

“It’s a new teacher isn’t it?” Leon replied. “We’ll be one of his first classes”

“Just a shame that we’re sharing that class with the Slytherins” Matt spat.

There was a collective groan around the table, prompting some odd looks from the other Gryffindor’s.


	4. The Potions Master

#  **Chapter Four: The Potions Master**

The potions classroom was situated in the dungeons of Hogwarts, deep below the castle. The walls were dark and there was a faint smell of dampness in the air, they were clearly close to the lake in this subterranean world. The dungeons were also home to the Slytherin common room, clearly a factor in the green flamed torches lining the walls, and it was no surprise to see the Slytherins already lined up in front of the door to the potions classroom. They stared down the Gryffindor’s as they approached but remained silent until they reached them, before going back to talking amongst themselves. Albus noticed that Scorpius wasn’t amongst them.

The classroom door swung open and they were beckoned inside. The room itself was dingy and not dissimilar to the dungeon outside, dark walls, dimly lit. The walls were lined with shelves holding a variety of grim looking plants and other matter, all potion ingredients at a guess. 

Professor Marlowe stood at behind a large desk wearing a dark blue waistcoat and white shirt. He was well turned out with his short, styled jet black hair and thin glasses.

“Hello first years, sit down quickly please” he spoke in a well-mannered turn.

The first years obliged and took out their books, parchment and quills before quietly facing the young potions master.

“Thank you” he said. “My name is Professor Marlowe and I am the new potions teacher here at Hogwarts” he slowly paced in front of the students. “Now, I’ll just give you a quick introduction about myself. As you are aware this is my first year teaching at Hogwarts and it hasn’t been long since I was a student here myself, I completed my N.E.W.T’s a couple of years ago and spent most of last year travelling the world” he looked into empty space as if he was reminiscing. “After that I heard that Professor Buboe was retiring so I applied for a teaching position here and it was accepted” He finished talking and returned to his position behind the desk.

“But that’s enough of that, on to todays lesson” he whipped out a piece of chalk and began jotting some notes on a blackboard. It listed some ingredients and a method.

“Today” he’d finished his notes, “I want you to create a simple anti-spot potion. It’s not too tricky but I’m also not expecting perfect potions from any of you, this is your first time after all. Detailed instructions can be found on page eleven of your books and ingredients are in the cupboard, good luck”

The class collectively rushed towards the supply cupboard at the front of the class. A ruck formed around the narrow doorway as people clamored to get their hands on the ingredients. Bertie fell to the floor along with Matt; a laughing Caedus seemed to indicate that he was the one responsible. Eventually everyone came out with what they needed, toad skin, essence of blue bottle and waxleaf berries.

Albus turned to page eleven in his copy of Magical Drafts and Potions and found the recipe for the anti-spot potion. It looked simple enough, the illustrations were easy to understand and it appeared to be a short preparation time. He looked across to the table where Rose was stood; she was staring at the book, her face a picture of concentration. 

Albus turned back to his own book and started to prepare his ingredients by cutting up the toad skin into small chunks and placing them in the cauldron of water. The book mentioned that it should turn the water dark green with a light green smoke coming off the surface. Making the chunks too small would make the colour too light and making them too big would give it a heavy aroma, as well as a dark green colour. 

He dumped the chunks into the cauldron, mercifully, turning the water green, proving that he’d done it correctly. Glancing across at Bertie, he saw that his cauldron was giving out a rather alarming amount of black smoke. Looking flustered, Bertie’s eyes darted around the room as he tried to get Marlowe’s attention. 

Eventually he walked to Bertie’s desk, “Not to worry” he flicked his wand and emptied the cauldron, “Give it another go, we have plenty of time”

Bertie shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair, “This is awful” he whispered. 

Rose leant over, “Just cut the toad skin up and bit smaller, you had it too big” she suggested. 

“Thanks…” he replied before putting some more toad skin on his chopping board and forlornly cutting it up. 

Albus looked back at his own work, the colour had remained the same green and he felt comfortable enough to add the Essence of Bluebottle. Half a teaspoon was enough, according to the recipe. He slowly dripped the shimmering blue liquid into the cauldron and watched as the colour turned to a lighter shade of green, as well as giving off a few sparks.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Albus turned back to the recipe and saw that it said to add two crushed waxleaf berries. He looked across to Bertie, who had managed to make a rather unpleasant brown mixture, one that was bubbling at an alarming rate. 

“What have I done now?” he asked, to no one in particular. 

Rose leant over and looked inside his cauldron. “I think you’ve added the essence too quickly, it needs to be more gradual”. She pressed her index finger onto her lips, standing silently in thought for a few moments, before she rushed over to the supply cupboard.

She returned a few moments later, carrying a bottle of lilac liquid. By this time, Professor Marlowe was observing her with interest, and he walked over to the table. 

Rose didn’t notice him and she measured out a teaspoon of the liquid before slowly adding it to Berties bubbling cauldron. She looked at it intently as the bubbles died down, and the liquid turned to a healthier shade of blue. Rose beamed and almost broke into dance with excitement. 

Behind her, Marlowe looked impressed, “Excellent work Miss Weasley!” he said, “Using Stag Beetle Juice to neutralize the Essence of Bluebottle is knowledge I wouldn’t expect from a first year! Take twenty points for Gryffindor!” he looked into Berties cauldron, “You’re back on the right lines now Mr Hadham, just remember to pay close attention to the instructions, there’s nothing wrong with taking your time”

With that he walked over to the next table. Bertie shook his head, “How did you do that?” he asked Rose.

“I did a lot of reading before I came to Hogwarts, I guess something I read just stuck in there” she replied. 

Bertie took a deep breath, “But still, how do you even remember that stuff?”

Rose shrugged, “You just need to read it over and over” she turned her attention back to her cauldron, which was happily bubbling away.

Suddenly, the classroom door opened, causing everyone to stop talking and turn to face it. Scorpius Malfoy staggered in, he was covered in some sort of slime and dirt. Professor Marlowe looked at him, concerned. 

“Sorry, Professor” he spluttered, “I was lost, and…Peeves…he just, you know…”

Marlowe nodded slowly, walked over to him and took him out of the room. He quickly called behind him to the rest of the class, “Carry on with your potions everyone, try not to break anything whilst I’m gone”

The door shut, and Caedus, along with a few other Slytherin’s, immediately burst into fits of laughter. On the next table, Matt also struggled to keep a straight face, whilst Rose was quietly sniggering to herself. 

Albus looked at Bertie, “What do think happened to him?” asked Albus.

Bertie shrugged, “I guess some student called Peeves attacked him”

“I think I remember my Dad mentioning someone called Peeves…” Albus pondered out loud. “He might’ve been a ghost or something”

Bertie looked confused, “Can ghosts pick things up and throw them at people?”

Albus shrugged, “I don’t think so”

With a snort, Rose said, “They can’t, someone was probably playing a prank on him”

The class continued brewing their potions, but a consistent murmur buzzed around the room, full of theories as to why Scorpius was late and covered in ooze. Tessa Rainier, a plump Slytherin girl screeched, “Maybe he ran into a troll in one of the lower dungeons!”, whilst Luther Dorian, one of Caedus’s cronies, laughed, “I bet he sneezed all over himself, with a nose that big I bet he could flood most of the school!”

Albus rolled his eyes as he finished stirring his potion, he didn’t care for the Slytherins’ wild theories. He was more curious as to why they seemed to hate Scorpius that much, they’d formed a negative opinion of him remarkably quickly after all. 

After five minutes Marlowe walked back into the room, followed by a now clean Scorpius. Marlowe pointed at the spare seat on Albus’s table, and Scorpius sat at it, between Rose and Bertie. He didn’t bother to take his cauldron out, there wasn’t enough time left in the lesson, instead he peered into Berties cauldron. Bertie glanced at him, nervously; the last thing Bertie wanted was someone watching him struggle at potion brewing. After a few seconds, Scorpius pulled out his own copy of Magical Drafts and Potions and turned to the page with the anti-spot potion on it. 

He read it intently then looked into Bertie’s cauldron again, a curious look on his face. With a slight nod, he turned to another page in the book and started to read it, before looking into the cauldron again, the potion was starting to spark rather alarmingly.

“How long has it been on the heat?” he asked, quietly

Bertie looked alarmed, “I…I’m sorry?” he replied

Scorpius ignored him and leant over to take a better look at the cauldron, “I think you’ve left it on too long, it says here that the potion will start to lightly spark after ten minutes on a low heat” he looked at the rather large flame, “This looks like more than a low heat to me”

“Um…” Bertie mumbled, starting to panic, “I don’t know how long it’s been on, I’ve been distracted”

Leaning across Bertie, Scorpius turned the heat down and looked back at the cauldron, it was slowly losing it’s sparks.

Rose tutted, a bit louder than she normally would, “You know, you should really ask before fiddling with someone’s potion” she irritably stirred her own cauldron, not even glancing at Scorpius.

Looking slightly offended, Scorpius looked down at the table, “Sorry, I was just trying to help”

Bertie put his hands up and said, “No no, it’s fine, I need all the help I can get”

Scorpius smiled at him, “Can we work together then? I think there’s still enough time to make this potion work”

Bertie looked relieved and allowed Scorpius to move closer to his cauldron. “Please, hopefully I’ll pick some tips up”

The pair of them peered into the cauldron and whispered amongst themselves, Scorpius occasionally referring to the recipe and guiding Bertie through the method. “You were nearly there, the colour looks pretty close to what it should be”

Albus turned back to his own potion, he’d been distracted by Scorpius and had neglected it somewhat. It had thickened a bit too much, and he quickly started to stir it again, hoping to rescue it. After a few minutes of stiring, the solution had thinned slightly, but it had gone too far to be completely saved. Sighing, he looked back at Bertie. He and Scorpius seemed to be doing a decent job of making his potion into something that at least resembled what it was supposed to look like. 

“Well, it’s not perfect” said Scorpius, tapping the ladle of the side of the cauldron, “but at least it won’t kill anyone”

Bertie didn’t look entirely convinced, “Are you sure?”

“I wouldn’t use it to remove spots, but it might be able to make them appear less red…” he said, peering into the cauldron. 

Marlowe walked over to the pair, and looked at their potion, “Not bad for a first attempt, but well rescued Mr Malfoy, ten points to Slytherin” he smiled at him and checked his watch. “We’re coming to the end of the lesson, and I can’t see how you can improve that further, best to pack away”. 

Rose’s hand shot into the air, “Professor, can you check mine? I’m worried that I put too much essence of blue bottle in earlier” 

Marlowe pulled an empty vial out of his robes and dipped it into the cauldron, pulling out some of the bright green liquid. He held it up to the light and swirled it around, then put it to his nose where to inhaled the aroma. Finally, he grinned, “Excellent work Miss Weasley, it’s just about perfect. Could’ve maybe done with an extra couple of seconds on the heat, but I’m nitpicking. Twenty points to Gryffindor, for a truly excellent first attempt at potion making” 

He turned to the rest of the class, “First years, turn the heat off and stop stirring please, we are just about out of time” he went to the front of the class, “If you could please bottle up a sample of your potion and label it, then bring it up to me. Miss Rainier, I wouldn’t recommend drinking it, unless you want to become Madam Longbottom’s first patient of the term”. Albus noticed the plump Slytherin move her vial away from her mouth, a look of disappointment on her face. 

Albus filled a vial, his potion was slightly darker, and didn’t seem to move as well as Rose’s, but he was pleased enough with his attempt. He went to the desk and handed it over to Marlowe, who eyed it critically. “Not quite enough stirring, and could’ve done with a bit more bluebottle essence, not bad though Mr Potter” 

Relieved, Albus returned to his desk and tidied his ingredients away, but wondered what to do with his, still full, cauldron. He was about to turn and ask Professor Marlowe, when Matt called out.

“Sir, what are we supposed to do with the rest of our potion?”

Marlowe looked startled, as if he’d only just remembered that they’d brewed an entire cauldrons worth of the potion, “Ah, yes, hold on” he pulled his wand out and wordlessly waved it in the air. With a slight pop, the cauldrons emptied and became completely clean. “There we go, thank you for the reminder Mr Bingham”

Albus swung his bag over his shoulder and picked his cauldron up, waiting for Bertie to pack away. Once he’d finished, they both walked out into the dark corridor and waited for the other Gryffindor’s to join them. Before the Gryffindor’s came out though, Scorpius wandered over to them. 

“Hey, Bertie” he said, smiling at him, “I hope I was helpful in there”

Bertie smiled back, “Yeah, I think I was slowly getting the hang of it”

Scorpius glanced back at the classroom, before turning back to Bertie, “I’d better go, but I’d be happy to help you in our next potions lesson”

Before Bertie could reply, the classroom door swung open again, revealing Caedus, followed by Luther Dorian and Tessa Rainier, both of whom were struggling to hold in their laughter.

Caedus strutted up to Scorpius, then eyed Bertie and Albus suspiciously, “So, this is who you associate with now, Scorp? The son of an auror, and a mudblood”

“Don’t say that!” Albus burst out, his anger suddenly rising.

Caedus ignored him, “Did you like our little trick, by the way?” his face broke into a smirk, “I was a bit disappointed that Marlowe managed to clean the Thestral bile so easily, but I suppose it’s a common potion ingredient…”

“I don’t care about what you did” Scorpius snapped, he moved his face closer to Caedus’s.

Caedus snorted, “Yeah, right” he took a step back, “You were wise not to snitch, I would make life even worse for you if you told Marlowe”

“How do you know I didn’t?” Scorpius said, trying to sound convincing. 

“Instinct” he said, dismissively.

The door swung open again, this time the Gryffindor’s were walking out into the corridor, along with the rest of the Slytherin’s, who took one look at the scene in front of them and quickly raced away towards their common room. The Gryffindor’s, on the other hand, stayed put and watched. 

“Good news, Scorpius, your brave Gryffindor friends are here to save you” he mocked.

“We’re not his friends!” Matt called out, before being sharply elbowed in the ribs by Sophie. 

Caedus looked at him, “That’s fine, this one is though” he firmly patted Bertie on the shoulder, making Bertie wince slightly with pain, “The traitor and the mudblood, what a combination” he cackled. 

At the mention of the world ‘mudblood’ Rose, Amy Barnes, and Jessie Sears all gasped and took a step back, whilst Leon Newland and Shaun McLaren both dropped their cauldrons in shock. Matt took a stride towards Caedus and pulled out his wand, “Take that back! Don’t you dare use that word!” he shouted. 

Rather than look worried about Matt advancing towards him, Caedus had a look of great amusement on his face. He faked a yawn, “How original, the big strong Gryffindor, coming to the defense of the weak. You’re a pure blood Bingham, right? You should’ve been in Slytherin like the rest of us”

Matt reached Caedus and stuck the end of his wand under his chin, “Green really isn’t my colour” 

They stood like that for what felt like hours, but was more like five seconds, glowering at each other. Just as Albus started to get worried that Matt was about to escalate things, the door to the potions classroom opened, and Marlowe walked out, holding a tray of potion ingredients. He stopped and looked at the scene in front of him, clearly trying to work out what was going on. Matt had hidden his wand as soon as the door opened, and he was now looking at Marlowe. 

“What are you all still doing here?” Marlowe asked, bewildered, “Get to your common rooms, now” he said, slightly more sternly. 

Slowly, Matt backed away from Caedus, who was still wearing the same smug expression on his face. Scorpius rushed down the corridor, not even looking at the others before leaving. With a glance to his two followers, Caedus inclined his head down the corridor and walked away from the Gryffindors, who still stood with Marlowe. 

“Common room, now, please” Marlowe insisted, standing tall over them. 

Silently, the Gryffindors obliged and walked briskly away from the classroom and out of the dungeons. They silently walked up the staircase and entered Gryffindor Tower. The common room was busy, everyone else appeared to have made their way back from their last lessons of the day. With most of the seats taken, the first years all went to their dormitories, the girls waving the boys goodbye as they turned into their own room. 

Once inside the dormitory, Matt kicked his truck and flopped onto bed. “I hate that Caedus brat” he spat, spreading his arms out over his head. 

Leon sat down on his bed and pulled his tie off, “Yeah, calling Bertie a…” he glanced at Bertie, “you-know-what, wasn’t cool”

Matt sat up, “It’s disgusting, I thought all those pure-blood fanatics died out years ago”

Shrugging, Leon threw his shoes off, “Guess there’s still some hanging around, it wouldn’t surprise me”

Bertie was starring at the pair of them, completely lost, “Sorry, but what exactly did he mean by ‘mudblood’?” he asked

Matt winced, whilst Leon and Shaun both looked away, not wanting to answer. Albus looked down slightly, but decided to answer, “It’s a horrible name for people who are muggle-born…” he said quietly. “It’s supposed to imply that muggle-borns have dirty blood, that they’re somehow not proper witches or wizards”

Looking perplexed, Bertie sat down on his bed, “I didn’t know that”

Matt looked at him, “No decent wizard would ever think about using it, just ignore him when he says it”

“But, I didn’t even know what it meant! How can I be offended by something I don’t even know the meaning of? How stupid is he?” Bertie said, laughing slightly.

Matt allowed himself to smile, and he relaxed, “Fair point, I guess he’s not exactly the smartest tool in the shed. But still…” he lowered his voice, “You could always jinx him, once Constantine teaches us how” he chuckled and turned away from Bertie. 

Finally sensing that the atmosphere was suitably light, Leon turned to the others, “I don’t think I ever asked, but what is everyone’s parentage? Obviously Bertie is muggle-born, and Matt’s pure-blood”

“Mostly pure-blood” Matt interrupted, sternly, “We’re not one of the ‘Sacred Sixteen’, or whatever the number was…”

Leon nodded, “Gotcha” he looked at Shaun, “What about you?”

Shaun was doing a Daily Prophet crossword, and he looked surprised that Leon had addressed him, “Me?” he replied, in a low voice, “Half-blood, both my parents are muggle-born”

“Cool” said Leon, turning to Albus, “Well, we all know you’re half-blood” he smiled. “I’m half as well, Mum’s a witch, my Dad’s a muggle. Not entirely sure he understands our world, but Mum’s done a decent job of trying to explain over the years. He’s massively into Quidditch though!”

Albus’s ears pricked up, “Really? Who do you support?” 

Leon puffed his chest out, “2015 and 2016 champions, The Falmouth Falcons” he declared, proudly. “My Mum supports them, so she brought me to my first game. What about you?”

“Oh” Albus went slightly red, “The Chudley Cannons”

Matt snorted, “Oh well, could be worse”

“Yeah, you could be a Ballycastle Bats fan, I mean that last season was just embarrassing, 2534 quaffle drops? That’s hopeless!” said Leon

Matt sat up, “I thought you’d be a Holyhead Harpies fan, considering your Mum played for them”

Albus shook his head, “My Uncle won the battle, brought me a load of Cannons stuff when I was younger. Then he took me to my first game”

“Sounds rather cruel to me…” he replied, snarkily. 

“Do you play?” Albus asked Leon, ignoring Matts rather dismissive comment.

He nodded, “Yeah, my Mum used to play on the Gryffindor team, so I’m hoping I’ll make the team one day too! In fact, I think she played with your Dad” he said.

“Really?” asked Albus, “What’s her name?”

“Alicia Newland, but she would’ve been Alicia Spinnet at Hogwarts”

Albus racked his brains, thinking back through all the stories his dad had told him about playing Qudditch for Gryffindor. Finally, something clicked, “Yeah, that name does ring a bell, was she a chaser?”

“That’s right” he replied

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door, causing the boys to all jump slightly, “You all decent in there?” a girls voice called out.

“Yeah, who is it?” Matt replied

The door cracked open, and the blonde head of Sophie King peered inside, with the raven haired Jessie Sears behind her, giggling. “Everyone’s making their way down to dinner, you coming?” said Sophie. 

“Dinner?” said Leon, “I completely forgot about that!” he quickly put his tie and shoes back on, “I’m starving!” 

Jessie was staring at a few items of clothing on the floor, “How have you made this place messy already?” she tutted, “Ours is spotless”

Taking a couple of seconds to look around at the few of sets of unpaired socks on the floor, Matt scratched his chin. “It’s not messy”

Jessie giggled, “Whatever you say” she turned around, “I’ll see you down there Soph” she said before heading down stairs. Leon and Matt quickly followed her, with Shaun not far behind. Sophie, however, stayed put, looking at Bertie. 

“Hey, um, Bertie, can I have a quick word?” she said

Bertie went red, “Really? What about?”

Sophie glanced behind her and walked into the dormitory, closing the door behind her, “I just wanted to ask you about what Caedus said, the ‘mudblood’ thing”

“What about it?”

“Do you know what it means?” she asked

Bertie looked at Albus for support, “Sort of…”

Noticing this, Albus addressed Sophie, “It’s a horrible name for people who are muggle-born” he said simply.

Sophie nodded slowly, “I know” she looked at Bertie again, “Rose told me and Hope what it meant. We thought it was disgusting, how can the school let someone like that in?”

Bertie clearly didn’t know how to respond to that, and he once again looked at Albus for support, but quickly turned back to Sophie, “I guess they don’t know what people are like?” 

Sophie sighed, “I suppose. Anyway, we were thinking that we’d tell Professor Longbottom, he’s our head of house, he’d be able to deal with it”

“Deal with what?” Bertie said

Sophie looked surprised, “Bertie, someone in our year called you something really offensive, surely you want that to stop?”

With a shrug, Bertie replied, “It’s not as if he said I was a rubbish wizard or something”

Looking disappointed, she turned to Albus, “What do you think?” she asked.

Albus had hoped to avoid any awkward questions, so was unprepared to answer, “Oh, um…” he started, “I guess it would be a good idea to nip it in the bud…”

Sophie turned back to Bertie, looking happy, “See? Al thinks it would be good to tell a teacher about it. We could even tell Professor Constantine, he’s head of Slytherin, right?”

Bertie stood up, “It’s fine, really. It didn’t offend me”

Sophie bit her lip and stood up taller, “Bertie, I don’t think you understand” she paused, “It’s not just you he’s trying to insult, it’s me and Hope as well. We’re all muggle-born, and we need to deal with it”

Hesitating, Bertie opened his mouth to reply, but had to pause again, “I see…” he looked down, “Ok, fine, tell Professor Longbottom…”

Sophie allowed herself to smile, “Good, I just think it’s really important that we deal with this in a good way, not with Matt blasting Caedus to pieces” she backed towards the door and opened it, before turning back to Bertie, “We just wanted to let you know what we were thinking, that’s all, we thought it was important you were on board. It was you he was directing it towards, after all”. With that, she left the room.

Now stood in silence, Albus cleared his throat and addressed Bertie, “Are you ok?” he asked, but Bertie was staring into space and ignoring him. “Bertie!” Albus said, louder this time.

Snapping out of his trance, Bertie turned to Albus, “Sorry, yeah, I’m fine” he said quietly, before straightening his robes and heading towards the door.

Not sure whether or not to press the issue, Albus slowly followed him out of the common room. He was getting the distinct impression that Bertie had been bothered by the ‘mudblood’ incident a lot more than he was letting on. Stretching his arms out and yawning, he could hardly believe that it had only been his first day.


	5. Hagrids New Pet

#  **Chapter Five: Hagrids New Pet**

The rest of Albus’s first week at Hogwarts went by remarkably quickly. The lessons had followed the pattern set by the first day, the teachers giving a basic introduction to the course. By the end of the week, with the teachers starting to give actual tuition, things had become more interesting.

Professor Constantine had given them a surprisingly interesting lecture on the usefulness of jinxes as defensive magic, culminating in him performing the Jelly-Legs Jinx on an enthusiastic Matt.

In Herbology, Professor Longbottom had provided each student with a small, spiked plant, one that didn’t look dissimilar to a small, round, cactus. Had it not been for it’s bright purple body and orange spines, Albus would’ve sworn that it was.

“Patagonian Piercing Fruit” Professor Longbottom declared proudly when his presented his students with them. “Fresh in from Argentina, had to fill out about ten feet of forms to get them”. He grinned at the uncertain looking first years, “Thought we might have these as a project over the course of the year. They pretty much look after themselves, just need to keep an eye on the spines, if they start to darken then it needs watering. They’re supposed to flower in springtime, the petals are useful for potion making. Plus, the fruit itself is said to be delicious, but I’m rather hoping we won’t be eating them. Remarkable things…” he spoke at a million miles an hour, clearly entranced by the plant.

The class all left the greenhouse holding a pot each, with not everyone sharing their teachers enthusiasm. Caine Lakewood, a tall Hufflepuff boy eyed his particularly suspiciously “Not exactly the prettiest thing in the world, is it?” he said, to no one in particular.

One of his Hufflepuff housemates, a short, pale, dark haired girl called Niamh Loughlan replied, in a soft Irish accent, “I don’t know, it think it’s quite cute”.

Matt snorted and whispered, “Cute? It’s a purple cactus…”

The one lesson that everybody was looking forward to was, undoubtedly, flying. The Gryffindor’s all ran down to the castle grounds for their final lesson on Friday. The Slytherins were already waiting there, along with a tall, burly wizard wearing black Quidditch robes.

“Ah, good” he said in a Scottish accent as the Gryffindor’s lined up by a row of brooms in the floor. He clapped his hands together, “Now that we’re all here, my name is Professor Wood, and I shall be your flying instructor”. He walked down between the two rows as he spoke. “Just a quick show of hands, who here has flown before?” Nine or ten hands flew into the air, prompting Wood to nod, “Very good” he continued, “This first lesson shall simply be an introduction to basic broom usage. No one is to attempt any tricks, or go any higher than I say. Is that clear?”

The class chanted back “Yes, Professor Wood”

“Good” he said, returning to the end of the row. “Let’s not waste anymore time. Hold your right hand over your broom and clearly say ‘up’!”

Albus stepped up to his broom, a rather bedraggled looking Silver Arrow that belonged to the school. He cleared his throat and said, “Up!”. The broom jumped up a couple of inches, but then lay on the ground. He looked around at everyone else. Much to his annoyance, Caedus was already holding onto his broom and looking around smugly. To Albus’s left, Bertie kept repeating the word “up” over and over, but to no avail. The broom simply wobbled to the floor.

“At least it’s not just me this time…” Bertie said to himself.

Across from Albus, Leon said clearly “Up!” and the broom shot straight up into his outstretched hand. He gave a small fist pump and grinned.

Albus tried again, but once again the broom barely left the ground. “Ah, come on” he said, irritably. More brooms were starting to find their way to their owners hands, leaving just half a dozen people standing there saying ‘up’. Getting more and more annoyed, Albus was practically shouting at his broom, trying to force it into his hand.

“Up!” stated Bertie, and, to his shock, the broom soared into his hand, nearly knocking him off his feet. “Ha, I did it” he said, disbelievingly.

The rest of the class had broken into small groups who were chatting amongst themselves, leaving Albus and a single Slytherin student to keep attempting to raise their brooms. Even Rose, who Albus knew had never shown any interest in flying, had managed to command her broom. Albus heard a small cheer from the Slytherin’s, he looked up to see the last one clasping his broom tightly.

Bertie looked at Albus sympathetically. “You could just pick it up” he suggested.

“Great, thanks…” replied a sarcastic Albus.

Bitterly, Albus stuck his hand out one last time and angrily stated, “UP!”. Mercifully, the broom leapt up off the ground and into Albus’s waiting hand. “You see, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” he addressed to the broom.

Wood clapped his hands together again, prompting the class to fall silent. “Good, now we all have our brooms, we shall move on to grip and seating position”. Holding his own broom, the brand new Cleansweep Sixteen, between his legs, Wood said, “Place your leading hand further towards the head of the broom, with your weaker hand about a foot behind it”. Once the class had done this he kicked off from the ground and hovered a couple of feet in the air, “If you are comfortable, kick off and hover”.

Leon immediately began to hover, easily sitting comfortably above the ground and giving pointers to those around him. “Lean back a bit Shaun, the front of your broom is pointing down”

“Very good Newland” said Wood, “Everyone, take note of his seating position and balance”

Slowly but surely, the rest of the class managed to get into the air, some hovering more confidently than others. Bertie’s knuckles were white as he clung on for dear life.

“You’re fine, you’re fine, you’re fine…” he quietly repeated to himself.

Albus, on the other hand, was relatively comfortable sitting on his broom, he had done it before after all. He thought back to the summers he’d spent playing Quidditch in the garden with James. However, it was hard to ignore a rather persistent vibration from the end of the broom, as if it was berating him for sitting on it incorrectly.

Wood flew between each student, correcting their stance or complimenting them. Once he reached Bertie he forced him to sit up straighter and relax his grip at bit. Rather reluctantly, Bertie listened to him.

“If you grip too hard, you’ll find it harder to change direction” he explained, Bertie could only nod in reply.

Satisfied with everyone else, Wood flew into the middle of the two rows and clapped his hands together.

  
“Excellent, no mishaps so far, this might be a new record!” he declared, prompting nervous glances from the rest of the class. “Let’s return to the ground then, slowly please” he continued.

Leon effortlessly lowered himself to the ground and dismounted his broom, before looking up at the others and giving yet more hints to his fellow Gryffindors. “Keep going Amy! Careful Matt! Mind the pigeon Rose!”

Albus’ broom shook as he tried to lower it, meaning it wasn’t the most comfortable trip back to solid ground. Eventually, everyone was back on the ground, although Bertie had landed slightly faster than he wanted and ended up with a few snapped twigs as he fell off the back of the broom.

After Wood had checked he was still one piece, he continued his lesson. “Did we all feel comfortable with that?” he asked. The class nodded, and he carried on, “Good, I have to say that that was one of the more successful introductions to flying I’ve had to do. Unlike last year, when one boy thought it would be a good idea to fly directly through Professor Mutati’s office window, I think his ears have only just stopped ringing”

After a few more basic flying drills, Wood told them all to dismount and put the brooms back in the stores. Once Albus had put his back on the rack and headed back out onto the grounds, Wood tapped him on the shoulder.

“You’re James’ brother, aren’t you?” he said

Albus nodded, “Yeah, I am”

Wood grinned, “Half the Gryffindor team could end up being Potter’s soon! If you’re even half the flyer your brother is, you’ll be a huge asset!”

Albus had to force a smile, he suspected he would be hearing this a lot, “Thanks” he said tartly, before excusing himself and walking back towards the castle with the rest of the Gryffindors.

He had expected more from his first lesson, as much as he knew he wasn’t as good a flyer as James, he still thought he’d be among the better flyers in the first years. Even Bertie, someone who’d never heard of Quidditch until this week seemed to have more control over his broom than he did.

In contrast, he could see that Leon was practically skipping his way back to the Great Hall, such was the adrenaline that he had in his veins following his successful first outing.

“That was amazing!” he sang, “I’m definitely going to try out for the Gryffindor team next year, anyone else?”

Matt shook his head, “Nah, you’d have to be really good to get on the Gryffindor team, it’s a young squad, and they’re the defending champions!”

Leon sighed, “I guess, but still, you should never rest on your laurels, always keep the team on their toes!”

“What position do you play, Leon?” asked Amy Barnes

“Hmm, I’ve always thought of myself as a Chaser, but wouldn’t it be amazing to be a seeker?” he replied.

Albus called from the back of the group to Leon, “You’d have to beat my brother to become the Gryffindor seeker”, he said, flatly.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that. He’s really good, isn’t he?” said Leon, turning around.

Albus shrugged, “Don’t know, I’ve only seen him fly in the back garden” he turned his head to the floor, slightly regretting bringing him up.

Matt grinned, “We won’t have to wait that long to find out, the first match is just after Halloween, isn’t it?”

The group descended into a chat about Quidditch, but Albus continued to walk behind, his head bowed towards the ground. Bertie was walking beside him, and he had a concerned look on his face.

“What’s the matter? I thought you liked Quidditch?” he asked

Albus didn’t look at him, “I do like Quidditch, I just don’t really want to talk about it right now”

“Oh, ok then…” replied Bertie, “Did you enjoy the lesson though?”

“Not really” said Albus, shortly

Before Bertie could say something else, he was interrupted by a familiar voice. “Albus!” it said, followed by a large figure striding up to them.

Albus finally looked up, to be greeted by the hulking figure of Hagrid, his greying beard hiding a red looking face, suggesting that he’d practically ran up to him. He was pleased to see him, and he gave him a small grin.

“Hello Hagrid” he said. He noticed that Hagrid was carrying a bucket full of oddly bloody meat. “Um, what is that?” he asked.

Hagrid glanced into the bucket, “Oh, err, don’t worry about tha’” he said quickly. “Listen, I just came to make sure you were still coming to tea today”

Albus blinked as he remembered his mother telling him that Hagrid had invited him, “Ah, yeah, I completely forgot about that”

“No matter, no matter, you’ve been busy. The offer is still open though” he said, smiling.

Albus looked around at the other Gryffindors, most of whom were not quite over just how large Hagrid was. They were whispering amongst themselves, just Bertie and Rose looked relaxed.

“I can go right now” said Albus, turning to walk down the path, away from the entrance. He looked at Bertie and Rose, “Do you two want to come? You don’t mind, do you Hagrid?”

Hagrid looked delighted at the prospect of more company, “Not at all, the more the merrier!”

Bertie grinned and walked towards Albus and Hagrid. Rose, on the other hand, glanced at the other Gryffindor’s, before looking apologetically at the other three.

“Maybe later, I’ve got homework to do before dinner” she said.

“That’s fine Rosie, I’ll keep a rockcake for you” said Hagrid.

The Gryffindor’s all headed into the castle, leaving Hagrid, Bertie, and Albus stood in the early evening sun. Albus looked up at Hagrid, who was staring at the large Hogwarts doors.

“So, which way to your house, Hagrid?” he asked.

Hagrid snapped his head down to Albus, “Oh, righ’, I forget that you’ve never been there before”. He led the pair down a rugged path, eventually reaching a small, rather tatty looking, hut on the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

“Here we are, home sweet home!” Hagrid declared, swinging the door open, causing it to smack on an adjacent shelf that was inside, making a brown vase wobble precariously.

The hut was relatively cosy inside, a small fire was burning in the fireplace. There was a large table next to a window, which was adorned with a rather ugly tablecloth and a vase of wilting sunflowers. Hagrid motioned the pair of them to take a seat on a set of tatty red sofas, Bertie eyed his one suspiciously, clearly concerned that something might jump out of one of the many holes in the fabric.

As Albus sat down he glanced across to a small basket on the floor, next to the fireplace. It was covered in a grey blanket, which was shaking slightly. Hagrid shut the door behind him and sat in his own sofa, dropping the bucket of bloody meat beside him.

Albus had plenty of questions, “Hagrid, what exactly is in that bucket?” he said, scrunching his face up.

Seemingly shocked at the question, Hagrid hesitated for a moment, “Tha’?” he said, scratching his beard, “It’s for Professor Constantine, he’s got a Kappa for his third year students to look at. They feed on human blood you see, this stuff is the closest substitute”

“A Kappa?” asked a quivering Bertie

“It’s like a scaly monkey thing, from Japan” said Hagrid, “Anyway, that’s enough of tha’” he clapped his hands together and relaxed into the sofa, “How’s your first week been, eh?”

Albus had to think for a second, “Oh, it’s been…fine” he finally said.

Hagrid chuckled, “Just fine?”

“Well, you know, it’s gone by quickly”

A warm smile grew on Hagrid’s face, “Your brother said the exact same thing” he mused. “I remember him sitting exactly where you are now, looking as nervous as a Porlock!”

Albus allowed himself to smile in return, “I can’t imagine that” he said.

Hagrid continued, “Then there was your Dad!” he laughed heartily, “Comes in here with Ron and immediately starts to question me about his teachers, and a Gringotts break in! Sorta’ set the tone for the next few years that…” he tailed off.

Suddenly, Bertie let out a small yelp. Albus and Hagrid both turned to look at him, then followed his gaze to the basket by the fire. The blanket now had a small lump underneath it, and it appeared to be moving. Hagrid got out of his seat and crept over to the basket, and Albus noticed that he was cooing slightly.

“Oh no, did we wake you up?” he whispered, whilst reaching out with his large hands to gently pat the lump.

Albus looked at Bertie with a bemused expression on his face. There was a knock at the door, causing the lump to wriggle in Hagrids hands.

“Get that for me, would ya Albus?” he said, not turning around.

Albus went to the door and opened it, whilst standing on the tips of his toes to reach the doorknob. Standing outside was Rose and James, both of whom had got changed out of their robes.

“Oh, hello Albus” said Rose, “Is Hagrid…”

Without a word, Albus stood to one side of the door, giving the pair a clear view of Hagrid crouched over a quivering wicker basket, cooing and whistling.

Rose looked, understandably, perplexed. She struggled to hold in her laughter at the rather absurd scene.

James, on the other hand, groaned and pushed past Rose to enter the house. “What’s he got this time?” he said to himself, pulling his wand out of his jeans, “If this is another Demiguise, I’m not helping you catch it!” he declared.

“Wha’?” said Hagrid, turning his head to face James, “Oh, ‘ello James” he said simply, not acknowledging his remarks.

“I’m being serious Hagrid, do I also need to remind you of the Niffler incident?” James replied.

Albus closed the door and joined the other three, who were now all gathered around Hagrid, “Are you telling me this is a regular thing?”

James snorted, “Just a bit, last year it was Demiguise, the year before was the Niffler outbreak. Teddy told me he once had to deal with Fire Crabs, and an Occamy, and that was in the same year! I’m telling you now Hagrid, if you’ve got a dragon, I am so out!”

“A dragon?” squeaked Bertie, who was already a couple steps further back than everyone else, from where Hagrid was crouched.

Rose looked at him reassuringly, “I don’t think Hagrid would put a baby dragon in a flammable container”

James looked at her and stated, “He would”

Smiling nervously, Rose shrugged at Bertie, “I’m still sure it isn’t a dragon”

“Oh oh, don’t worry, they’re not going to hurt you” cooed Hagrid, still gently stroking the lump.

James took a step closer to the basket and pointed his wand at it, “I swear to Merlin, if I have to chase this thing around the castle fo- Ah!” he suddenly shouted as something grey leapt out of the basket and ran around the floor. James jumped away, whilst Rose and Albus barely caught a glimpse of it.

The grey blur made a beeline for Bertie, who was stood perfectly still in front of the tatty armchair. The creature then leapt up towards him. Bertie held his arms out and somehow clung onto it, although he did not look best pleased at having to do so. He forced his eyes open, and was greeted by rather excited looking puppy.

“Oh” said Bertie, with a distinct air of surprise, “It’s a dog”

Rose let out a yelp of happiness, “No, it’s a crup!” She immediately went over to Bertie and started to stroke the wriggling creature. “Look at it’s tail Bertie”

Once Rose had gently pulled the crups’ tail out, Bertie could see that it clearly wasn’t a dog. The tail was forked into two separate appendages, but other than that, it simply looked like an ordinary Jack Russell.

James looked at Hagrid, a relieved grin on his face. “A crup? That is by far away the most docile thing you’ve ever owned”

Hagrid, who by this point had been brought out of his crup induced trance, simply shook his head and let out an exasperated sigh. “Docile? This was this first time I’ve managed to get him to sleep!”

“At least it can’t knock paintings off walls and steal half the contents of the trophy room” said James, flopping onto a sofa in relief. “How long have you had him?”

“Since the summer, found ‘im in Hogsmeade, all by ‘imself” said Hagrid, taking a seat.

Rose was happily cooing and stroking the pup, whilst Bertie was grinning at him, staring into his wide black eyes. “He’s adorable, Hagrid!” said Rose, “Does he have a name?”

“Patch” he said, proudly, “Look at ‘is left eye”

Bertie saw that the crup had a darker bit of fur around his left eye, resembling an eyepatch. “He’s nice” said Bertie, who was ignoring that fact the puppy was nibbling at the hem of his robes. “Patch is a perfect name”, Bertie smiled warmly at the puppy.

“I know!” said Hagrid, who looked completely ecstatic at how well his choice of name had gone down. He carefully picked up Patch from Bertie’s arms and placed him back into his basket. “E’s only little, e’ needs to sleep” he cooed, gently patting Patch’s head.   
  


Eventually, the tiny Crup fell asleep and Hagrid returned to his bedraggled armchair, stretching his massive frame over it and exhaling deeply. “Wonderful things, Crups” he said, “Incredibly loyal to magic folk, but very wary of Muggles”

James, who seemingly couldn’t believe that Hagrid would be owning a creature as harmless as a Crup, chuckled, “Honestly Hagrid, I’m just grateful it’s not eating us. Now, got any tea going?”

Hagrid looked startled, “Oh righ’, forgot abou’ that” he walked, as quietly as he could, to the kitchen and put a large brass on the stove, “So tell me James, what’s your third year like?” he called over.

“Well, Professor Trelawney’s marked me for death, Professor Mutati described my attempts to turn a Hedgehog into a pin cushion as ‘just about adequate’, and, unless you’ve forgotten, I met a Hippogriff” James listed.

Hagrid stood with his mouth open in thought for a few seconds before raising his eyebrows, “Of course! Forgot all abou’ that!” he pulled the steaming kettle off the stove and poured the boiling water into four, bucket sized, mugs. He gathered them on a tray and carried them over to his guests. “Ol’ Buckbeak’s getting docile in his old age, so he’s great for you lot to meet”

Bertie glanced at Rose and mouthed “Hippogriff?” to her. She opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Hagrid handing her a mug of tea,

“’Ere you are Rosie” he said with a smile, before handing Bertie and Albus a mug each. He returned to his chair and addressed Rose again, “I noticed that Gryffindor are winning the House Cup at the momen’, I’m assuming that’s mainly because of you?” he said, grinning.

Rose blushed and took a sip of tea, “I haven’t looked at the score”

Hagrid chuckled, “You’re as ‘umble as yer mother!” he said, “And just as bright! We’ll be winning that Cup again this year, easily!”

This caused Rose to blush even more, and she sunk into the sofa, doing her best to hide her grin.

James laughed, “I thought you said you were going to be more neutral this year, Hagrid!”

“We’re all Gryffindor’s ‘ere, aren’t we?” Hagrid chuckled, “I know when to tone it down”

“Just teasing” James grinned

At that moment, Bertie spoke, “Um, excuse me, Mr Hagrid” he said, slightly uncertainly.

“Just Hagrid is fine, tha’s what everyone else calls me”

“Oh, sorry, Hagrid” he paused for a second, “Sorry if this is a bit random but, I don’t think I ever properly introduced myself.”

Hagrid looked a bit surprised, but he took it all in his stride, offering Bertie a warm smile, “Rubeus Hagrid, keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts, also Professor of Care of Magical Creatures”

Bertie relaxed and returned his smile, “Bertie Hadham, um, Muggle-born Gryffindor”

With a chuckle, Hagrid nodded, “I s’pose you were a tad overwhelmed the las’ time I saw ya. What with just being told you were a wizard an’ all”

“Yeah, a little” said Bertie, “And it was a bit weird with you taking my whole family into London to get to Diagon Alley!” he grinned.

Hagrid looked confused, “A bit weird?”

James snorted, “He means you stood out in the crowd of Muggles a bit”

“Oh, righ’, I see” he chuckled, “Taking new students into Diagon Alley is my favourite part of the job” He looked at Albus, “Did the same thing with your Dad when he firs’ joined Hogwarts”

Albus nodded, “I know, he’s told me. Didn’t you go into Gringotts to get the Philosophers Stone?”

Hagrid exhaled, “Aye, asked far too many questions that day as well” he chuckled. “I’ll tell you what, you lot really remind me o’ your parents. Hopefully you’re a bit less adventurous though!”

James finished the rest of his tea and put the empty mug on the table next to him, “You know Dad barely talks about his adventures, right? Reckon he wants to keep us from doing the same as he did”

“Can ya blame ‘im?” Hagrid exclaimed, “The amount o’ times he ran around the castle, looking for trouble…”

Rose took a sip of tea, “My Dad says that trouble usually found them first” she stated.

“It was a bit o’ both really” said Hagrid, “Just promise me tha’ you four, even you Bertie, won’t be as reckless as them while you’re ‘ere”

James snorted, “I’ve already broken that promise”

Hagrid opened his mouth but quickly closed it again, “Well…yeah” he said flatly.

Albus looked at Hagrid, “Do you really mean that?” he asked.

With a sigh, Hagrid leant forward, “I promised your Mum and Dad that I’d keep an eye on you lot while you’re ‘ere. He doesn’t want ya to get into trouble”

Albus looked at the floor in silence, “Why?” he finally said.

Hagrid smiled warmly, “He cares about ya, doesn’t wan’ ya to get involved in anything that migh’ get you hurt”

He looked up and into Hagrids eyes. Albus could see that he was being genuine with his concern. But why exactly had his Dad asked Hagrid to do that? Had he made the same request of Hagrid when James started school? Albus certainly wasn’t looking for any trouble, he’d only been at Hogwarts for a week after all. He put his, still half full, mug down and stood up.

“It’s getting late” he said, looking at the darkening autumn sky.

Hagrid looked startled and turned to look out the window, “I s’pose it is” he stood up and collected the mugs, “Well it was nice to see you all. Drop by anytime”

Bertie stood up and joined Albus by the front door, he whispered, “Are you ok?”

He answered with a shrug, “I’m just tired”

Rose gave Hagrid a hug, “Thanks for the invite Hagrid, I’ll have to visit again soon so I can see Patch!”

Looking shocked, James responded, “Don’t tell him that, he’ll have you help de-worm it”

Hagrid waved them off and the four of them made their way through the grounds and back up the castle. They were largely silent as they walked underneath the darkening sky, the clouds prevented any stars from appearing.

As they reached the large doors to the entrance hall, they spotted the tall frame of Professor Constantine wandering through the courtyard.

James called out to him, “Good evening, Professor!” he waved.

Constantine nodded in response and walked over to them, “Shouldn’t you all be at dinner?” he inquired.

“We’ve just been visiting Hagrid” James replied

“Ah, I see” he smiled, “If you hurry, you might able to grab some food from the Great Hall before they close”

Rose asked, “Are you out for a walk Professor?”

Constantine smiled at her, “I always find that an evening walk can empty my mind of many things, I can recommend it. Now, I’d get inside if I were you, the evenings get cold quickly up here”

With that, Constantine glided away from them and across the grounds. The four young Gryffindor’s heeded his advice and headed inside, taking a quick detour to grab some pasties from the Great Hall, and retired to the Common Room.

Albus headed straight up to the dormitory, without saying goodnight to either Rose or James. Bertie followed up, practically jogging to keep up. Once they were inside the dormitory, which was empty, Albus flopped onto his bed and sighed deeply.

“Are you ok, Albus?” asked Bertie

“What? I’m fine” he quickly replied.

Bertie looked concernedly at his friend, “It’s just, you’ve been acting a little bit weird today”

“I said, I’m fine” snapped Albus, he rolled over to face away from Bertie.

Bertie nodded slowly and backed away towards the door, “I’ll leave you alone then…” he said quietly before leaving Albus alone in the dormitory

Albus turned over to make sure Bertie had gone before he grabbed some parchment and a quill from his bedside table. He pulled the curtains of his four poster closed and started to write.

_Hi Dad,_

_Just thought I’d write to you, I forgot to do it after my first day, it’s been a bit busy. James probably already told you, but I got sorted into Gryffindor, along with Rose. I’ve made friends already, Bertie Hadham is a muggle-born wizard who I met on the train, and he’s in Gryffindor too._

_I saw Hagrid this evening, I know we only saw him in the summer, but it was nice to catch up. He’s got a new pet Crup by the way. He was telling us about some of the things you used to get up to while you were are school, sounded fun!_

_Apparently you asked him to keep an eye on us…_

_Tell Mum and Lily that I miss them, and that if Lily wants me to bring a souvenir home for her, I will. And tell Teddy how I’m doing as well._

_Love you_

_Al_

Albus reread the letter a few times, just to make sure he wasn’t coming across as too badly. He wanted to show his Dad that he was annoyed about being mollycoddled. The letter did seem a bit short, but he couldn’t think of anything else to say, hopefully his Dad would get the message.

Not that Albus knew exactly what he hoped to achieve with the letter. Did he really care that much about being looked after? Hagrid clearly meant well, and no doubt his father did too, and yet he couldn’t shake the feeling that he wasn’t being trusted to attend Hogwarts unsupervised. Albus wanted to ask James if the same thing happened to him when he was in his first year, but right now he just wanted to send the letter.

Albus climbed out of his bed and went downstairs into the common room. It was much busier than usual, with it being a Friday. A radio was playing the latest Harold and the Hippogriffs single, and several of the older students were practicing their charms by making some apples tap dance. Albus found James sat on a windowsill, laughing with some other third years.

“James, I need to borrow Nero” Albus stated.

James rolled his eyes and jumped off the windowsill, “Back in a minute guys, gotta do owl wrangling duties”

The third years started to laugh, one girl playfully tugged at James trouser leg, “Don’t be long, you need to finish that Madagascan Troll joke”

James winked at her, “Can’t rush a good punchline”

Rolling his eyes, Albus dragged his brother away and they both left the common room through the portrait hole. The castle was almost completely empty now, with just a few ghosts floating around.

  
“He was hanging around the North Tower, he prefers it to the Owlery” said James, with a yawn. “Next time, can you wait for me to finish flirting before interrupting me?” he glanced back at Albus.

“No promises” Albus said shortly, “What was her name?”

“Kelsey Short, she’s trying out for chaser next week. She’s probably only interested in me to get on the team, luckily I’m hard to corrupt” he sniggered.

Albus raised an eyebrow, “Still flirting with her though?”

James shrugged, “Never let a good opportunity go to waste”

“Don’t let Rose hear you say that” stated Albus.

Yawning again as they reached the staircase for the North Tower, James turned his head back to Albus, “Tell me Albus, is something up?” he said, surprisingly sincerely.

Albus avoided his gaze, “I’m fine, just tired”

James let out a single laugh, “Ha! I know you too well to be fooled by that! It’s to do with what Hagrid said, right?”

“It’s nothing”

With a wag of his finger, James said, “No it’s not. I bet that’s what the letter is for. It is for Dad, right?”

“None of your business” snapped Albus.

James sighed, “You know he’s only worried, that’s all, doesn’t want you turning into him”

Albus didn’t answer; he just kept following his brother up the staircase. Once they’d reached the top, James stopped by a closed trapdoor, he pointed at it and turned to Albus, “That’s the Divination classroom, best avoided unless you have to be there”

He looked towards a window and opened it, allowing the cold air to rush in. James then pulled out a handful of owl treats from his pocket and waved the by the window, whistling as he did so. Albus had seen this trick many times in his life, Nero was a curious owl, he liked things a particular way.

After a few seconds of nothing, the sound of swishing wings soon filled the room and a barn owl was now perched on James’s outstretched hand, nibbling on some treats.

“Hello Nero, up for a flight to Devon?” said James, stroking the back of the owls head. Nero squawked in response and flapped his wings. “Good boy, now go say hello to Albus”

Nero took a short flight to Albus’s arm, where he landed softly and gently nibbled his index finger, as a greeting. “Careful, Nero” said Albus, before placing the letter in Nero’s beak. He gave the owl an stroke and let him fly back out of the window, to begin his long journey south.

“I love that owl” said James, closing the window, “Never lets you down.

Albus didn’t respond and instead headed straight back down the staircase, causing James to run after him. On the way back down, James made sure to walk alongside his younger brother.

“You’re welcome, Albus” he said sarcastically.

“Oh, right, thanks for getting Nero for me” replied Albus

James plonked some owl treats into Albus’s hand, “Just so you don’t have to bother me again. He’ll probably return to your dormitory anyway, he normally does”

Albus nodded, “Thanks”

James opened his mouth to speak, but thought better of it. Instead, the pair walked silently through the castle and back to the, now quieter, Gryffindor Common Room.


	6. Potter, The Hero

#  **Chapter Six: Potter, The Hero**

As the leaves on the trees turned gold and began to fall, conversation turned towards Halloween. Of course, the main thing that the students were looking forward to was the famed feast. The promise of copious amounts of chocolate and pumpkin juice was very tantalising. However, the first years excitement had been slightly tarnished by the enormous amount of homework they had been given. On the night of the feast, rather than heading straight to the Great Hall after their last lesson, the first year Gryffindors were instead holed up inside the common room, desperately trying to finish off their last scraps of homework.

No one had warned Albus about the sheer amount of it that was given at Hogwarts. After a relatively relaxed start to the year, suddenly the weekends were no longer as free as they once were. Albus was only halfway through one Transfiguration essay, two rolls of parchment on Gamps first principal of Transfiguration, when Professor Flitwick had given his entire Charms class extra practice on their Levitation Charm. The reason this was given was due to sloppy wand work from Matt Bingham, which resulted in four hardback copies of 'Practical Charms for the Modern Wizard' shooting across the room and smashing two windows.

The only two people in the whole class to not get this additional work were Rose and, amazingly, Bertie, who had finally found a subject that he was immediately good at.

“Swish and flick Matt, it’s not that tricky” he said giddily to a frustrated Matt, his feather had barely vibrated on the table.

Albus grinned at his friend, he was glad to finally see him excel at something magical. The rest of Bertie’s lessons had been slow to improve, his Defence Against the Dark Arts was getting there, as was his Herbology, but Potions was still the hardest for him. Scorpius Malfoy had barely even looked at anyone else in the class since the first week, instead choosing to work alone in the back corner, meaning Bertie had lost his tutor.

“Ugh, show me again” said Matt, throwing his wand on the common room table.

Bertie cleared his throat and pointed his wand at the feather, _“Wingardium Leviosa”_ he said, whilst swishing and flicking his wand. The feather immediately began its graceful ascent, getting as high as the chandelier, before Bertie guided it back to the table. “Just speak clearly, you’re mumbling”

Matt groaned and placed his head on the table. “What is the point?” he said, defeated.

“Come on Matt, try once more, you might as well!” Bertie cajoled Matt, and clapped his hands together.

The sound of giggling came from the adjacent table, where Leon was sat with Rose, Sophie, and Jessie. The latter was sat with her hand clasped across her mouth trying to stifle her laughter.

Leon was leaning casually and grinning like an idiot at Matt, “I cannot tell you how amazing this is”

Groaning again, Matt turned towards Leon, “What do you mean?”

“Professor Hadham, the Gryffindor charms master” Leon said with smile, “It is amazing”

Bertie blushed and looked away from Leon, “I don’t know how I do it, I just can”

“Pure talent!” said Leon, triumphantly.

Jessie finally moved her hand and let out a shriek of laughter, “What’s more amazing is Matt finding something that he can’t do! I had my money on it being Herbology that got you”

Nodding, Leon glanced at Jessie, “Not a bad shout, I thought we might get him when Professor Longbottom showed us the Devils Snare last week” he turned to Sophie, “How about you, Soph?”

Sophie rolled her eyes, “I thought it was a stupid game to be playing…but I did think that it would be Charms…”

Matt tutted, “Oh thanks”

“Sorry Matt, but Charms does require a more… delicate touch” she continued.

Albus grinned, “Maybe that’s Bertie’s secret”

“It can’t be, otherwise you’d be as good as me Sophie” said Bertie, looking at the blonde haired girl, causing her to blush.

“I’m flattered” she giggled.

Albus playfully punched Bertie in the shoulder and turned back to his Transfiguration essay, he still had another third to write, and there wasn’t much else he could think of to put in. He addressed Rose, who had her head buried in a book. “Hey, Rose, what was it that Uthbert the Unsteady did to try and break Gamps first principle?”

Closing the book and putting her quill down, Rose looked at Albus like he’d just forgotten how to tie his own shoelaces. “He tried to create a spell that would turn a stone into a chicken and cook it at the same time, therefore creating food out of nothing and proving that Gamp’s first exemption was nonsense. Mutati went over this at least five times”

“I know, I know” said Albus, waving away the last comment, “Uthbert only ending up creating several chickens that were on fire, not cooking, and were very angry with him”

Rose nodded, “Well done, you do remember!” she said, sarcastically. She turned to Matt, “I also had my money on Charms by the way, Matt. Sophie’s right, it needs a delicate touch and a clear head”

Leon snorted, “Matt’s head is certainly clear of something”

Not knowing whether to respond or not, Matt simply glared at Leon for a few moments and turned back to his feather. “Ok, I’m going to try one last time before dinner”

He cleared his throat, held out his wand and looked at Bertie, “Say it slowly, yeah?”

Bertie nodded, “Slowly, clearly, but also firmly”  
  


Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes for a moment, Matt pointed his wand at the feather, _“Wingardium Leviosa”_ he stated. The feather at the tip of his wand lifted off the table and hovered barely a centimetre above it. Bertie’s faced broke into a smile and he clenched his fists in celebration. Matt exhaled and the feather returned to the table, “I did it!” he exclaimed before turning to Leon, “You better take everything back! I did it!”

Leon chuckled, “Ok, fine, you did it! But don’t get too far ahead of yourself mate, it’s not exactly soaring is it!”

Ignoring this, Matt stood up and triumphantly strode across the common room towards the portrait hole. “I’m going to the feast, anyone care to join me?” he said beaming.

“Ok, fine” said Leon, “Can’t have the new Gryffindor charms master getting hungry, can we?” he winked at Bertie and followed Matt out of the room.

Meanwhile, the girls on the table were packing their parchment away, they had clearly had enough of Gamp for one evening. Sophie pulled her robe on and got up from the table, “They’ve got the right idea, anyone else coming?”

Albus shook his head, “In a bit, just want to finish this first” he pointed at the essay. “How about you Bertie?” he asked

“I’ll keep you company” he said with a smile

Sophie and Jessie both bade them farewell and headed downstairs, leaving Rose at the table, her head buried back in the large book. Bertie moved his chair closer to Albus and continued to practice his Levitation Charm, even though he clearly didn’t need it. Finding the constant bobbing of the feather more than a little bit relaxing, Albus soon stopped writing his essay and instead observed the feather steadily floating in the air.

“Mind if I have a go?” he asked, pulling his wand out of his pocket.

Bertie plucked the feather from the air and put it in front of Albus, “Be my guest”

“Wingardium Leviosa” said Albus. The feather made a slightly shaky ascent, not the smooth one that Bertie had managed to make the feather do, but it was better than any of Albus’s earlier attempts.

Bertie looked impressed, “Pretty good Al, definitely better than it was in the lesson”

Albus put his wand away, “Couldn’t be much worse though” he said, with a smirk.

Hearing this, Rose closed the book once again, and sighed, “You need to be more positive, you were far from the worst in the class”

Bertie nodded, “Did you not see Georgina Appleby’s feather smoking? Or Shaun putting a hole in the desk?”

“Or everything Matt did?” said Rose, stifling a laugh.

Albus, feeling slightly better about his rather unconvincing attempt at levitation, returned to his essay and scratched his head. “None of that helps me think of a conclusion to this thing though”

Hearing a sigh and the squeak of a chair from his left, Albus turned to see Rose stood up and packing her things into her bag. She had to force the large hardback book into it, but she flung it on her back and looked at Albus.

“I’ll help you out over the feast, just promise me that you won’t leave it to the last minute again”

Albus jumped up, and hugged his cousin, “Amazing, I’ll be right down!”

With a roll of her eyes, Rose turned to leave the common room, beckoning Albus and Bertie to follow her. As they made their way through the portrait hole, the Fat Lady shouted after them. “Cutting it a bit fine!”

Ignoring her, the trio raced down the moving staircase, doing their best to avoid any Halloween bats flying overhead and found their way to the Great Hall. They were relieved to see that there were still a few students making their way to their tables, but they had to settle for the seats at the end on the Gryffindor one.

The Great Hall looked suitably festive. Giant pumpkins floated in the air above the tables, and live bats flitted about, ducking and diving between the beams and candles. It also seemed like every ghost in the school had made an appearance at the feast. A choir of translucent nuns was stood at the head of the Ravenclaw table, letting out a ghoulish wail, and several headless knights on horseback galloped up and down the aisles.

As soon as he sat down, Albus filled his plate with steak and potatoes, before slurping down half a goblet of pumpkin juice.

Rose put a piece of broccoli in her mouth and pointed at the essay in Albus’ hand, “Let’s get that finished then” she stated.

“You’re joking?” said Albus, who had just put a large slice of steak in his mouth.

“Not at all, it’s better to get it finished, don’t you think?”

Albus glared at her, “Can’t I just eat for a bit? I’ve been studying all day!”

“Come on, essay, quill, now” she said, firmly.

Albus slowly put his fork down and unfolded the essay on the table. He reluctantly pulled his quill out and went to write on the parchment.

“I need ink”

Rose pulled a stopped bottle from her bag and placed it on the table, in front of Albus, “There you go” she said

“Thanks…” said Albus, quietly. He dipped his quill and began to write the conclusion to his essay.

With Roses’ help, Albus was able to get it over with quickly and still have time to eat a fulfilling dessert. He looked over towards the staff table and saw that both Professor Constantine and Professor Marlowe’s seats were empty, even Professor Selbit was there, and Albus had barely seen him all year.

He turned to Rose and Bertie, ready to ask them what they thought about this, when he was interrupted by several loud bangs from further down the Gryffindor table. The entire Great Hall snapped their heads towards it and most of them were stunned into silence. Several fireworks whizzed overheard, dropping a shower of red and gold sparks behind them. Some of them made a beeline for the Slytherin table, causing students to grab their plates and hold them up as rudimentary shields.

Once the performance finished, and the smoke subsided, James stood up on his seat and declared. “It is now midnight, which means the Quidditch season is just a couple of days away!” he raised a fist and shouted, “Gryffindor will be champions again!”

The Gryffindor students immediately burst into cheers and applauded James, some patting him enthusiastically on the back and chanting “Pottter! Potter! Potter!”

“Really, what does he think he’s doing?” Rose groaned, rolling her eyes, “He’s going to get Gryffindor in trouble before he’s even played the match”

Albus looked at his brother, stood triumphantly, receiving the acclaim. Despite knowing that James had plenty of self-confidence, he didn’t quite believe that he had quite as much as this.

“He’d better win the match after this, otherwise the Slytherins will be unbearable” he said.

By now, Professor Longbottom had arrived and reprimanded James, but had stopped short of docking any points off him, knowing that James hadn’t actually meant to harm anyone with his stunt. The headmaster, on the other hand, came down and took twenty-five points from Gryffindor, citing the ‘unreasonable amount of ruckus’ that was caused by him.

*

James’ stunt had certainly done one thing, everybody in the school was now highly anticipating the upcoming Gryffindor vs Slytherin match. The students from both houses were now even more hostile towards each other than before, with rumours about Slytherin students trying to corner James and incapacitate him spreading around the school. In response to this, James was now being accompanied around the school by some of the larger sixth and seventh years, in the hopes that any attempts to harm their star player would be thwarted.

Taking it all in his stride, James seemed to be enjoying his heightened celebrity.

“I did consider writing to Teddy to ask him to come and be my bodyguard, but I figured he was too busy with his Auror training to come in” he said to a gathered group of adoring Gryffindors in the common room the evening before the big match.

*

The day of the match came around quickly, with no one in either Gryffindor or Slytherin able to get any sleep the night before. The staff had clearly noticed this, and had stationed Professors’ Longbottom and Constantine in the Great Hall early to prevent any brawls breaking out over breakfast. Both of them looked rather blearly eyed, Longbottom looked especially tired, most likely because he’d been up all night with nerves. Professor Constantine was less tired, he clearly didn’t have as much investment in Quidditch as everyone else in the school.

“Good morning Sir” James said to Professor Longbottom, flanked by his bodyguards, “Sorry in advance about today, Professor” he said to Constantine.

With a simple wave of his hand, Constantine dismissed it, “I just want to see a nice clean game” he said, “Of course, I’d prefer a Slytherin victory, but-”

“Not gonna happen!” said James, strutting into the Great Hall and sitting down, whilst being greeting with rapturous applause from the Gryffindors, and loud boos from the Slytherins.

Caprice Flynn, the Gryffindor captain, shoved a couple of the more enthusiastic fans away to give her star player some space as he ate his breakfast. She instructed her two beaters to sit either side of him, brandishing their bats to deter any late sabotage attempts from Slytherin.

From the other end of the table, Albus was sat with the other first years, all decked out in Gryffindor red and gold. Leon Newland had a large banner that spelled out ‘POTTER’ draped over his shoulders, and was practically shaking with anticipation.

“Stop moving so much Leon, you’re going to knock your pumpkin juice over” said Amy Barnes, reaching out to grab the goblet and steady it.

“Sorry” said Leon as he settled down, “I’m just so excited”

Albus looked at his brother and noticed how relaxed he looked. Wondering just how it was he could pull off a stunt like he did at Halloween, whipping up a ton of animosity between Gryffindor and Slytherin, be threatened with jinxes and hexes, and still look like he was just having a normal Saturday morning.

Soon, the entire school was making their way down to the Quidditch stadium, the atmosphere still tense. Albus stood with the other Gryffindors in their corner of the large wooden stadium. To his right was Bertie, ready to experience his first game of Quidditch, his cheeks were adorned with two Red ‘G’s that Sophie had painted on several other first years.

From high up above them in one of the many towers that formed a ring around the stadium, a loud voice boomed from a megaphone.

“Welcome to the first match of the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup!” it began enthusiastically, “Today we are delighted to bring you the biggest rivalry in Quidditch, apart from the Montrose Magpies and the Wigtown Wanderers, of course. It’s Gryffindor against Slytherin!”

A chorus of cheers rang around the stadium, prompting Bertie to cover his ears. The Gryffindor supporters all started to chant in unison, with the Slytherins doing the same from the opposite end of the stadium.

The announcer spoke again, “And here come the teams, first Slytherin!”

Seven green clad riders flew out of the tunnel down next to the pitch and did several warm up laps of the ground, prompting loud cheers from their supporters.

“The Keeper O’Hare, Chasers Milton, Huckerby, Todd, Beaters Martin and Holt, and the Seeker McLean, who is also the captain!” the announcers rapidly listed the names of the Slytherin team.

Albus could see that looked formidable. They were an experienced team, and had won the cup for three years before James got onto the Gryffindor team and ended their streak.

“And here come Gryffindor!”

This time the flashes were red and gold, with the team again doing several warm up laps around the stadium. James gave the Gryffindor supporters several fist pumps as he flew past them, whilst he directed some rather rude gestures towards the Slytherins, which only made their boo’s louder.

“The Keeper is Cooper, Chasers Chambers, Wark, and Flynn, the captain, Beaters Holland and Stewart, and the Seeker Potter!”

The referee, Wood gathered the two captains to the centre circle and gave them some instructions, before prompting them to share a reluctant handshake. From there he turned to a large wooden trunk and released the two Bludgers and the Golden Snitch into the sky. Albus could see James already eyeing the Snitch as it flitted around them, before it shot into the bright sky. Wood then picked up the large red Quaffle and held it in his hands, mounting his broom, and kicking off into the sky, hanging just below the two teams.

He blew his whistle and threw the Quaffle into the air, where the Gryffindor captain, Flynn, immediately claimed it. She flew towards the Slytherin goal as quickly as she could, dodging a couple of attempted tackles, and threw it towards the left most post, where the Slytherin keeper made an easy catch. The Gryffindor supporters let out a groan.

“An almost perfect start from Caprice Flynn there, but Scott O’Hare was equal to it. Now Huckerby has it, with Milton to his left, this is dangerous for Gryffindor, but that is a fantastic bit of Beater play!”

Albus could barely see the Bludger, such was the pace that Holland had hit it at. It struck Rose on the shoulder, forcing him to surrender the Quaffle to the diminutive Wark, who raced away down the pitch, exchanging passes with Flynn and Chambers.

“This is a great chance, now Flynn has it, just the keeper to beat… Goal!”

Flynn had placed an excellent shot past the keeper and through the hoop. The Gryffindor supporters let out a huge cheer and started to goad the Slytherin fans, who all had their heads in their hands.

The announcer continued, “A great start to this game, that early goal should settle some nerves”

Slytherin immediately went on the counter attack, peppering the Gryffindor goalposts with shot after shot, all of which were saved by some brilliant acrobatics from Cooper.

“Look at her go!” cried the announcer, “She’s leaping around like a salm- but what’s this?”

All eyes turned to see James pulling into a steep dive, followed closely by the Slytherin seeker, McLean. The entire stadium gasped as he pulled out of the dive, just inches from the ground. He turned to see that his counterpart had just managed to do the same, but had lost a few twigs off the back of his broom as it brushed the ground.

“Did James Potter just see the Snitch? I certainly couldn’t spot it, but that’s why I’m sat up here, and not riding a broomstick” said the announcer.

Amidst all the excitement of James’ bold dive, Slytherin had made another attack on the Gryffindor goal, and this time they looked odds on to score.

“This is a glorious chance, three Chasers against one Keeper, if Huckerby can pick out Todd this will be a goal…and Todd does score, that levels things up!”

This time it was the Gryffindor’s with their heads in their hands, as the Slytherin team high fived each other in celebration. The Gryffindor team had switched off, allowing the Slytherin’s in. Caprice Flynn clapped her hands and shouted some encouragement to her players.

“Were they distracted by Potter’s dive just now? You’d think they’d know what their Seeker was doing without needing to look” pondered the announcer.

Gryffindor got the game going again, but a very well aimed Bludger robbed them of possession, the Quaffle finding its way into the hands of Milton to raced down the pitch and put it through the middle hoop, prompting wild celebration from Slytherin.

“Incredible! What fight from this Slytherin side, they’ve completely turned things around and have taken the lead!”

The Gryffindor Chasers looked at each other in confusion. James flew down from his position high above them and gave his own encouragement, whilst Flynn was having a word with her two beaters. They had to get a grip on this game, otherwise they would be heavily reliant on James catching the Snitch to win the match.

However, two more Slytherin goals quickly followed, stunning the Gryffindor fans into silence. Leon had taken his banner from his shoulders and was now slumped down on his haunches, whilst Matt had taken to simply shouting insults at any Slytherin who happened to fly nearby.

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, James dived once again. He was shooting towards the ground, and McLean hadn’t reacted quite as quickly, meaning he was lagging behind. The Gryffindors let out a roar, knowing that if James had spotted the Snitch there was no way he was going to be beaten to it. Once more, just inches from the ground, James pulled out of the dive and leveled out. McLean, on the other hand, wasn’t as lucky. The top of his broom hit the soft pitch, dug in, catapulted him off and caused him to skid along the ground.

“Oh wow, that was a perfectly executed Wronski Feint from Potter there. Hopefully McLean isn’t injured and this game can continue quickly”

The Gryffindor fans, not caring whether or not he had been hurt, let out a huge roar. It was clear the James hadn’t spotted the Snitch, but was actually trying to unsettle his opposite number. Wood blew his whistle and landed next to the stricken Slytherin Seeker. After it was clear that the only thing he’d damaged was his pride, Wood blew his whistle and allowed play to resume. The incident had ramped up the atmosphere inside the stadium, and the chanting louder and more vicious than it had been before. As far as play on the pitch was concerned, both Slytherin and Gryffindor had both scored another goal each, not that anyone in the stands noticed.

From the far end of the pitch, James raced away again, but not towards the ground this time. McLean, still clearly a bit dazed from his crash, hadn’t moved in response, it took a shout from a passing Slytherin Beater to prompt him to move in pursuit. The volume rose into a crescendo as it became obvious that James had spotted the Snitch this time. He glanced behind to see that McLean was still some way off. He stuck his right hand out and grasped the small golden ball between his outstretched fingers.

“Potter’s done it!” exclaimed the announcer, “A remarkable performance, to spot the Snitch from that distance, McLean simply had no idea! Gryffindor win the match one-hundred-and-seventy to Slytherins’ fifty”

The Gryffindor supporters jumped and cheered as their team flew towards them to accept the acclaim. James held the snitch aloft and let out several whoops, whilst his teammates embraced him.

“He’s so good” Leon said, in wide eyed awe.

Even Albus had to admit, his brother had a real talent for Quidditch. And yet, whilst he should be feeling pride at the fact his brother was a hero to his house, he couldn’t shake the horrible biting feeling in the pit of his stomach. Jealousy.

*

Later on that evening, the celebrations had spread to the Gryffindor common room. The radio blasted out a wizarding rock band as jubilant Gryffindor’s jumped up and down with various team members on their shoulders. The prefects had managed to procure some Butterbeer from the kitchens and had doled it out to almost everyone in the room.

Albus was leaning against the windowsill, a half empty glass of the golden liquid in his hand, observing the party before him. His fellow first years were stood just in front of him, laughing as they watched Leon recreate the entire match by himself. Albus was struggling to get enthusiastic about the whole thing, he was obviously delighted that Gryffindor had won the match and wiped the smug looks off Slytherin for once, but he couldn’t help but look at his brother with just a hint of jealously.

On the other side of the common room, he was stood surrounded by adoring fans and looking as happy as he’d ever seen him. His left arm rested on the shoulder of a fourth year girl, whilst his right hand was still clasped tightly around the Golden Snitch that had won him the game and all the adulation.

Caprice Flynn then turned the radio off, stood on a table and held her Butterbeer aloft.

“Three cheers for James Potter, the greatest seeker Hogwarts has ever seen!” she bellowed

“Hip hip hooray!” cheered the Gryffindors three times, before breaking into a constant chant of ‘POTTER! POTTER! POTTER!’. Everyone in the room joined in and surrounded James, whose grin had broadened exponentially.

“Ok, that’s it” Albus whispered to himself, smacking his glass down on a nearby table.

He slipped through the crowd as stealthily as he could and made his way towards the portrait hole. Just as he was about to push it open, he heard a voice behind him.

“Are you ok, Albus” it asked, sincerely

Albus turned to see Bertie stood there, his face paint starting to run as he sweated.

“I’m fine, just need some fresh air, it’s too hot in here” he said quickly.

Bertie opened his mouth but quickly closed it again, “Ok, I’ll save you some Butterbeer” he eventually said.

With a simple nod of thanks, Albus exited the common room and stepped into the cool and airy corridor. Not knowing exactly where he wanted to go, Albus simply followed the corridor for as far as it went and down a set of stairs that acted as a short cut to get to the History of Magic classroom, Albus had only used it once. As he climbed down, he caught a glimpse of the setting sun through a small window and realised that it wouldn’t be long before he would have to avoid getting caught by a teacher, or worse, Mr Filch, on pain of losing all the points that Gryffindor had just won by beating Slytherin. Albus was now at the bottom of the stairs and in a small alcove that was obscured from the rest of the corridor by a tapestry. A window was at one end, and Albus sat in front of it, to be alone with his thoughts for a while. A gentle draft made the tapestry shiver ever so slightly and bring some noise to an otherwise silent location.

Closing his eyes, Albus took a deep breath and relaxed, finally he was alone and away from the noise. Just then however, Albus swore he could hear movement from the other side of the tapestry. He snapped his eyes open and just listened. It couldn’t possibly by Filch, there wasn’t enough grunting, and no teachers apart from Professor Binns hung around the History of Magic classroom, and Binns was a ghost.

Was it a prefect? Albus thought to himself, as he shuffled towards the tapestry, he moved his ear closer to try and distinguish who it was.

“Hello, is someone there?”

Albus’ felt his heart skip a beat, he had been found…


	7. Scorpius Malfoy

#  **Chapter Seven: Scorpius Malfoy**

With sweat starting to bead on his forehead, Albus remained completely still. He couldn’t register who spoke, but he knew that he didn’t want to be spotted by anyone.

“I’m not going to snitch on you, I promise” said the voice, they were clearly male and a student. “I’m coming in, please don’t hex me…”

A small, pale hand reached around the tapestry and pulled it to one side, letting in the dim orange glow of the candlelit corridor beyond. A face slowly emerged from behind the tapestry. It was the sharp, serious looking, face of Scorpius Malfoy. He blinked a couple of times to focus his eyes, and then fixed his gaze upon Albus, crouched on the floor and staring up at him.

“What are you doing here?” Albus said

“I could ask you the same thing”

Albus looked at him blankly, “I was just…” he tailed off and looked away from him.

With a sigh of relief, Scorpius stepped into the alcove and let the tapestry fall back into place, covering the entrance. He sat against the wall and settled his gaze on the ceiling. 

“I spend quite a lot of time here, you know” he said simply, “Gives me a place to think”. He glanced at Albus, “Are you here to think?”

Albus slowly nodded, not quite expecting Scorpius to be so blunt, “Yeah, I guess I am”

“Thought so, why else would you be outside the Gryffindor Tower tonight, they’re having a party, right?”

“Well, yeah” replied Albus

Scorpius smirked, “Thought so”

“What’s happening in the Slytherin common room?” Albus inquired.

“No idea, haven’t been down there all day”

Albus looked shocked, “What? You’ve spent all day wandering around the castle?”

“Not all day, I spent most of the day in the Library. It was completely empty during the match”

“You didn’t watch it?”

Scorpius shook his head, “No, I’ve been trying to avoid crowds”

Albus looked puzzled, “Why’s that?”

“Why do you think?” Scorpius scoffed

“No idea”

Looking surprised, Scorpius took a deep breath and exhaled. “In case you’d forgotten, I’m not very popular in my own house”

Albus’ face went red, feeling embarrassed that he had forgotten that fact, “Oh, right, I see…” he stammered.

“It’s fine” Scorpius replied shortly, “Guess I’ve made myself pretty easy to forget”

Now feeling guilty, Albus went to stand, “Look, do you want me to leave?” he asked quickly, looking for anyway out of this more than slightly awkward situation.

Scorpius remained silent, and Albus stood up and pulled the tapestry to one side ever so slightly.

“Wait” Scorpius sighed, “Would you stay, just for a bit? I haven’t really talked to anyone for ages”

Albus remained still for a couple of seconds, but then let the tapestry fall back into place, before he resumed his position, sat opposite Scorpius. As he looked at him, Albus realised that he’d never really managed to get a proper look at him before. Every other encounter with Scorpius had been fleeting, or other things had distracted him.

He was short and slight, almost as if a strong enough wind could knock him off his feet. His blonde hair was slicked back behind his ears, with his sharp cheekbones making him look slightly skeletal. His blue eyes dug into Albus, as if he was trying to decipher him, but Albus could see that there was an element of sadness behind those eyes.

“Had enough of a look?” Scorpius sneered, a slight smile on his face.

Albus snapped his gaze away, “Sorry” he said softly.

“You’re far too quiet to be a Gryffindor” Scorpius said

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Scorpius let out a small laugh, “You’ve seen how you lot act right? All that shouting this week before the match?”

“Hey, the Slytherin’s were doing that more than us!” snapped Albus

“No one in my house let off fireworks at dinner” Scorpius smirked

Albus glared at Scorpius, but didn’t say anything. He was struggling to think of a way of retorting that wouldn’t come across as rude. Albus was surprised at how Scorpius was talking to him. He thought back to their very first potions lesson, when he spoke so kindly and helpfully to Bertie, talking to him now made him seem like a completely different person. He was determined to find out what had changed.

“Are we going to sit here silently all night?” said Scorpius impatiently as Albus continued to ponder.

Albus finally looked at Scorpius directly, “I’ve barely seen you since the first week, when you helped Bertie, and Caedus threatened you, what happened?”

It was Scorpius’s turn to look at the floor, “After Caedus called Bertie a ‘mudblood’, I felt terrible” He sighed, “I didn’t want anyone to be hurt because of me…”

“But it wasn’t your fault, Caedus is the one who said it” said Albus

Scorpius snorted, “The only reason Caedus said that is because I was there, if I hadn’t been he would’ve just come after me and ignored Bertie”

“Are you trying to tell me that Caedus isn’t a pure-blood supremacist?” asked Albus, with a raised eyebrow.

“He’s complicated” Scorpius shrugged, “He comes from a…difficult place”

Albus looked at Scorpius quizzically, “But even so, people don’t just say things like that for no reason. And what about the other Slytherins, they were backing him up”

“They’re scared of him. His family is high up in the Ministry, and, say what you like about him, he’s a pretty talented wizard” said Scorpius. “By the way, I heard that Sophie King told Professor Longbottom about what he said”

“Oh?” said Albus, “We never heard about that again, do you know what happened?”

Scorpius nodded, “He told Professor Constantine about it, and, from what I gathered, he was pretty angry with Caedus, gave him two weeks detention and everything”

Albus grinned, “That will be why we’ve barely seen him then!”

“So he hasn’t said anything else to Bertie then?” he asked sincerely

Albus shook his head, “No, nothing at all. We only see him in classes now”

“That’s good” said Scorpius, breathing a sigh of relief. He ran his hand through his hair and closed his eyes.

“You know, you don’t seem like a normal Slytherin” said Albus

Opening his eyes, but not looking at Albus, Scorpius replied, “Meaning?”

“You’re far too…nice” said Albus, hesitating slightly.

Scorpius laughed, “Maybe. Guess I’m not a great Slytherin then, want me to be a bit more self centered?”

“Not at all!” said Albus, grinning. “But I have to ask, why do you think you got put in Slytherin? You don’t exactly seem to fit in there

Scorpius looked at Albus with a defeated look in his eyes, “Have you ever heard of a Malfoy who wasn’t in Slytherin?”

This caught Albus off guard, not just because it was a slightly unexpected response from the seemingly guarded Scorpius, but because it echoed his own thoughts at his sorting. As Albus observed Scorpius, he couldn’t help but see his own worries and anxieties mirrored in him. The fear of not living up to your family’s expectations, the fear of disappointing them, the fear of being different to them.

The light coming through the window had become silvery with the full moon now high in the sky. It lit a small patch of the floor, almost exactly half way between the pair of boys.

Scorpius yawned and stretched his arms, “Well, I suppose I have to go back to the common room at some point tonight” He stood up and brushed some dust off his jumper, “Thanks for the talk”

“Wait!” said Albus, “Stay a bit longer, I don’t think I want to go back to the Gryffindor tower just yet, and I also don’t want to sit here by myself”

“You sure?” replied Scorpius

Albus nodded, “Please”

Scorpius sat back down again and stared at Albus, “You must really not want to be at that party”

“I just want to ask you something”

“Go ahead” said Scorpius, shrugging.

Albus took a deep breath, “What would your family say if you hadn’t been sorted into Slytherin?” he asked

Silence followed his question, and Scorpius stared out of the window, eventually replying, “My Mother wouldn’t have cared at all, my Father would’ve been disappointed, but would never say anything about it, and…” he chuckled slightly, “And my Grandparents would’ve disowned me and wanted me kicked out of the house”. He looked at Albus, “What about you?”

“Oh, well…” he thought for a few seconds before responding, “I don’t know. My Dad said that it wouldn’t matter which house I ended up in”

“Did you believe him?” said Scorpius

“I don’t know” sighed Albus, “All I know is that I was terrified of being anywhere other than Gryffindor”

Scorpius nodded slowly, “I get you. Guess when you’ve got half a million cousins at Hogwarts, all in Gryffindor, you don’t want to be all on your own in Ravenclaw or something”

“I wasn’t worried about being in Ravenclaw” said Albus, slowly, “I was worried about being put in Slytherin”

A loud laugh emanated from Scorpius’s mouth, and he quickly clasped his hand over it, lest he draw attention to the pair’s whereabouts. Once he’d stopped laughing he released his hand and said, “That’s pretty funny. I guess we’ve still got a reputation then”

Albus shrugged slightly and grimaced, “I guess, but it was mainly because my brother kept teasing me about being in Slytherin”

“Oh no, what a tragedy” Scorpius said sarcastically, “Can’t have your brother teasing you, can we?”

Albus sighed, “I know that sounds like a tiny thing but-“

“But what?” interrupted Scorpius, “Having a sibling making fun of you is nothing compared to what it would be like for me”

“I didn’t mean-“

Scorpius raised his voice, “Didn’t mean to come across as being petty? I get that you’re jealous of your brother and everything, but can you at least stop banging on about being worried about houses? It’s done, you’ve been sorted, you’re in Gryffindor”

Albus was taken aback, “I never said I was jeal-“

“It’s pretty obvious that you are, so you might as well admit it” said Scorpius sternly

“Fine!” snapped Albus, “I’m jealous of him, happy now?”

Scorpius sighed, “I suppose so. I’m guessing you’re jealous that he’s a better flyer than you, am I correct?”

“It’s not just that” said Albus, “He just seems so comfortable with everything he does, it’s like he doesn’t have to do anything to prove himself”

“And you do?”

Albus stuttered, “I…I think I do”

Scorpius looked into his eyes, “But why? It’s all well and good thinking that you need to prove yourself, but why?”

“Because…” Albus paused, “Because everyone expects me to be like James, and like my Dad”

Scorpius scoffed, “People expect me to be like my Dad too, you don’t see me moping about it”

“What are you saying all this for any way?” said Albus, he was starting to get annoyed with Scorpius.

“No idea really, just trying to get to know you” he replied with a knowing smirk. He then stood up once more and dusted himself off. “Want to have a walk?”

Albus looked out of the window and into the dark sky, “It’s late, we could get in trouble”

Scorpius shrugged, “It’s fun to break the rules. I go for late night walks all the time, and I haven’t been caught yet”

Albus pondered this for a few moments before standing up, “Fine, where are we going?”

“Don’t know, that’s part of the fun” he smirked.

He pulled the tapestry to one side and quickly checked that no one was nearby, before passing through the gap and into the corridor. Albus followed suit and was immediately hit by a cold breeze running through the castle. Most of the candles had been extinguished, with only the silver moonlight that was coming through the windows lighting the dark corridor.

Scorpius pulled his wand out of his jeans and said, “ _Lumos_ ”. The tip of his wand lit up like a torch and allowed the pair to see what was in front of them.

Albus was impressed, “Professor Flitwick hasn’t taught us that one yet”

“It’s pretty easy, you have a go” said Scorpius

Albus obliged and took his own wand out, stating “ _Lumos”._ To his surprise, the end of his wand also lit up.

“Nicely done” said Scorpius, smiling, “The counter-charm is _Nox,_ by the way, might be useful if we spot Filch”.

He walked along the corridor with Albus in tow, checking each corner that they passed by. A portrait of an elderly wizard with wispy white hair grumbled as the light from Scorpius’s wand lit up his dark painting, waking him up. They silently continued until they reached the the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom and saw a faint glow of light seeping from underneath the wooden door, Professor Constantine was clearly still awake.

Scorpius put his finger on his lips and tiptoed past the door, clearly afraid of alerting his head of house to their presence. Carrying on once they felt they were out of earshot, the pair sped up slightly, but ground to a halt as they heard the door to the classroom creak open behind them.

“ _Nox”_ said Scorpius quickly, before pulling Albus around the corner and covering the end of Albus’s still lit wand in his hand.

Albus registered what was happening and whispered, _“Nox”._ Scorpius let go of his wand and rubbed his hand, silently screaming in pain.

They could clearly hear that someone had left the room, and they were walking straight down the corridor towards them, humming a tune. Both Albus and Scorpius held their breath as the dark robes of Professor Constantine briskly passed by, flowing in the breeze.

The pair both took deep breaths as they heard Constantine walk further down the corridor. Scorpius relit his wand and looked at his hand, his palm was covered in an angry red welt.

“Dammit” spat Scorpius under his breath, “That hurts”

Albus, looking at his hand wide eyed, “Sorry, I forgot to extinguish my wand” he said apologetically.

Scorpius shook his head, “It’s fine, it should get better quickly” he grimaced and shook his hand in the air, trying to cool it off.

“Is there anything I can do?” asked Albus

“Not really, it will fade in a couple of minutes, don’t worry about it”

With some doubt, Albus nodded and peered around the corner, Constantine had indeed gone, along with the sound of his humming. Scorpius stood up, his hand still glowing red, and tugged at Albus’ robes, beckoning him further along the corridor.

“Hey, are you sure we should keep going? It feels like we’re just asking to be caught at this rate” said Albus, nervously.

Sighing, Scorpius replied, “You’re a really terrible Gryffindor, you do know that?”

Albus sensed that he was only joking, but that sentence still hurt, “I’m just being cautious, ok? I don’t want Gryffindor to lose all the points we gained in the Quidditch”

“Live a little!”

“I’d be an outcast, no one would talk to me!”

Scorpius rolled his eyes, “We’re not going to get caught! It’s gone midnight, Constantine is the only teacher who stays up that long, everyone else is nicely tucked up in bed. Now, do me a favour, and relax!”

Albus stared at him for a few seconds, before taking a deep breath and staring ahead down the moonlit corridor. A gentle draft moved the hanging tapestries, whilst the gentle snores of the sleeping portraits filled the otherwise silent air. Scorpius started to whistle a tune, prompting one of the suits of armour to whistle back to him.

There was a slight rustle from further along the corridor, Albus stopped in his tracks to listen, and Scorpius did the same.

“Did you hear that?” asked the Slytherin, in a hushed tone.

Albus nodded, not wanting to draw any attention to himself.

“It’s probably just the breeze, come on”, Scorpius carried on walking, albeit slightly slower than before.

They turned a corner and reached the Charms corridor. The portrait of Ranthorn the Uncertain was groaned as Scorpius’ wand light fell over it, but the area was otherwise silent. Albus stopped once more and looked behind him, he could’ve sworn that a shadow was moving towards them from around the corner. He silently reached out and grabbed Scorpius’ arm, pulling him behind a wooden cabinet.

“What!?” whispered Scorpius.

“Put your light out!” Albus peered from behind the cabinet as Scorpius quietly extinguished his wand. There was indeed a shadow moving steadily down the corridor. Albus could feel his heart thumping louder in his chest, and prayed that whoever was coming towards them couldn’t hear it.

“Blasted thing” whispered a voice. Deep, a man’s voice. He sounded frustrated. Albus pulled his head back slightly, hoping that he wouldn’t be spotted. Behind him, Scorpius grumbled, he was being squashed by Albus.

Ignoring him, Albus peered into the corridor once more and felt his heart sink. The figure was thin, and wearing a set of neat pinstriped robes. His black hair was neatly trimmed, and Albus could see a pair of glasses resting on his ears. Albus was staring at the back of Professor Marlowe.

Marlowe appeared to be reading a book, though Albus could not see which one. He scratched his chin and sighed. “What a puzzle this is…” he said, with a shake of his head.

Suddenly, he snapped the book shut and stood perfectly still. Albus held his breath, he could tell that the potions master was listening. Scorpius was shuffling slightly, and Albus wished he could tell him to stop.

Marlowe reached into his robes and pulled out his wand. _“Homenum Revelio”_ he said.

Albus felt a cool wave washing over him, as if he’d stepped out of the shower and into a cold bathroom. He spent half a second trying to work out what sort of spell Marlowe had cast, before he got an answer.

“Come out now!” said Marlowe, sternly, turning around to face the two boys. “Potter and Malfoy? What on earth are you two doing up at this time of night?”

The pair looked at each other, but were unable to offer any excuse that might seem plausible.

“Well?” asked Marlowe again. “Sleepwalking? Got lost coming back from a late night study session? What is it?”

Scorpius swallowed and replied, “We were taking a midnight stroll”, he’d done his best to sound confident, but it wasn’t all that convincing. He tried to look innocent, but that façade quickly fell away as Marlowe glared at him.

“The rules are very clear on this. No students are to be out of bed and wandering the corridors at night, even two first years ought to know that” he continued. “50 points will be taken from each of you, and I am giving you both detentions. I will be speaking to your heads of house about this as well”

Scorpius looked stunned, “50!?” he spluttered, “We were only having a walk!”

Marlowe raised his voice, “Do you want it to be 70, Mr Malfoy?”

Scorpius slammed his mouth shut and glowered at the floor. Marlowe turned to Albus and raised an eyebrow, “Do you have anything to say, Mr Potter?”

For a brief moment, Albus considered protesting his punishment, but he didn’t want to be responsible for losing Gryffindor any more hard earned points, “No sir…” he said flatly.

Marlowe nodded, “Go to your dormitories, immediately”. He starred at the intently as they dragged themselves away and towards the staircase. Without a single look at each other, they went their separate ways.

As Albus slowly climbed the stairs, he mentally beat himself up over what had happened. He’d just lost Gryffindor a chunk of the points that their victory in the Quidditch had given them, and he’d managed to get himself in detention. The only thing that Albus could think of doing, was to blame himself for being stupid enough to get into such a state that he’d storm out of a party and walk around the castle without any sort of plan.

He turned the corner and reached the corridor, at the end of which sat the Fat Ladys’ portrait. The Fat Lady herself was fast asleep. Albus put aside his thoughts and let out a small cough, but the Fat Lady didn’t stir. With a sigh, Albus coughed a little louder and tapped the canvas with his fist.

The Fat Lady let out a yelp and fell out of her chair. She sat up and brushed herself off, not acknowledging Albus at all, before sitting back down and finally looking out. Once she finally saw Albus, she looked surprised.

“What are you doing up this late?” she asked

“Don’t you start” replied Albus, shortly, “ _Pumpkin Fritter”_ he said the Halloween themed password.

“I don’t appreciate being woken up!” shrieked the Fat Lady, as she begrudgingly swung open to reveal the entrance to the common room.

Albus trudged in without another word and entered the scarlet and gold clad room. The room was now empty, but the signs of the earlier party were still there. Goblets and sweet wrappers were strewed across the floor, one of the armchairs had a pair of shoe prints on, and the large glass bowl of Butterbeer was now upside-down, its’ contents long gone.

To Albus’s delight, everyone in his dormitory was fast asleep when he entered, but he still tiptoed across the floor, stepping over creaky floorboard next to his bed. Deciding not to get changed into his pyjamas, Albus simply kicked his shoes off, climbed into his four poster, pulled the curtains around, and fell straight to sleep.


	8. The Blank Boook

#  **Chapter Eight: The Blank Book**

Any hope for Albus that the news of his late-night exploits would remain a secret were dashed at breakfast the next morning. A few keen-eyed students had noticed that the large hourglass was less full than it had been the evening before. Immediately, rumours started to circulate around, with various wild theories being thrown up. A couple of angry looking fifth years were threatening to punish the culprit who had lost them all those points.

Albus knew it would only be a matter of time before he was revealed to be the reason behind it, you can’t keep detentions secret after all. He glumly ate his porridge and listened to the continued shouting from the older Gryffindors. To Albus’ left, Bertie nudged him.

“How was your walk last night?” he asked, as he tried to do the Daily Prophet crossword.

“Hmm?” Albus asked, “Oh, fine, just needed some fresh air”

Bertie glanced at him, “I just didn’t see you come back in, that’s all”

Albus took another mouthful of his breakfast, “I sat downstairs by the fire for a bit” he lied.

“Fair enough”, Bertie sighed, “Do you know what animal has an exploding horn? Begins with the letter ‘E’”

Albus shook his head and shrugged in reply, he was in no mood to talk.

“Erumpent” said Rose, answering Bertie’s question.

Bertie let out a small “Yay” as he hastily scribbled the answer in the boxes. The picture of the crosswords’ author gave Bertie a round of applause as he filled each one in.

Albus continued to stab away at his breakfast, his appetite had diminished after being sat with his housemates for so long. He looked along the Slytherin table, trying to catch Scorpius, but he was nowhere to be seen. Hardly surprising, Albus sincerely doubted that he’d be hanging around after losing Slytherin points.

Bertie put the paper down and took a few more bites of his food. Albus saw that there was a Chudley Cannons match report on the back page, and he hoped that would take his mind off things.

“Mind if I read this?”

Bertie nodded.

Albus turned to the back page, only to be greeted by a scoreline of 20 – 430, in favour of the Tutshill Tornados. The report itself did little to lift his mood, though he was heartened to see that the Cannons had taken the lead early on, only to be completely overwhelmed for the rest of the match.

With a sigh, Albus pushed his half eaten breakfast away and stood up.

“Where are you going?” asked a confused Bertie.

Albus shrugged, “Um…feeling a bit ill, that’s all, fresh air”, he started to briskly walk away and towards the entrance hall.

Rose stood up and called over to him, “Remember you’ve got a History of Magic essay to finish! We’re supposed to go over it together!”

Albus pretended not to hear her and sped up slightly. He soon reached the entrance hall and walked out into the crisp Autumn air, there was a hint of frost on the ground, and the surrounding mountains were already starting to grow a white covering of snow.

As much as Albus had been put off the idea of aimless walking by the events of the previous night, it suddenly seemed quite appealing. The weather meant that most of the students were inside, leaving the grounds quiet. The ground was hard and the frost made a satisfying crunch every time Albus took a step. He looked around at the bushes, most of them were well on their way to being completely bare. It was November, and it suddenly hit Albus that his first term at Hogwarts was nearly finished. Even though his time had so far been uneventful, until last night, it had gone by remarkably quickly.

Albus turned a corner and re-entered the warm interior of the castle. The corridor would normally be bustling with students hanging around, but on a cold Sunday morning, it was completely empty. With no route in mind, Albus just walked straight on, his head firmly in the clouds.

“Ah, Albus!” said a voice from behind him. Albus jumped slightly, not expecting anyone to be nearby. He turned around and was greeted by the round face of Professor Longbottom, kitted up in an apron, and carrying a tray of empty flowerpots.

“Oh, hello Sir. Sorry, I wasn’t expecting to see you” he said, sheepishly.

Longbottom smiled kindly, “Not to worry. If you’re not busy, would you mind coming to my office, I’ll need a hand opening the door” he asked.

Albus nodded and escorted his head of house the short distance to his office. Longbottom thanked Albus as he let him into the office. He placed the tray of plants on the table and hung up his apron on the door.

“ _Vidersuluna_ saplings” he said, pointing enthusiastically at the empty pots, “

Albus looked at the pots closely, just to make sure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him. All he could see in the pots was some soil, and nothing else.

“What do you mean?” he asked, confused

“ _Vidersuluna_ is a fascinating species, they’re completely invisible until a full moon is in the sky” said Longbottom, getting more animated. “They’re exceedingly rare, we’ve only got one fully grown example of the plant at the school, so I’m hoping these little ones grow big and strong for me!”

Longbottom gave the plants one last loving look before turning away. He pointed his wand at the fireplace, lighting it and filling the room with a warm glow. “I’d just like a quick word actually, Albus, please take a seat”

Albus was somewhat reluctant to sit down, as he had a pretty good idea about what was coming. Longbottom sat opposite him and took a deep breath.

“Professor Marlowe has told me about your little escapade last night, and that he wants you to serve your detention tomorrow evening. You’ll be cleaning the potions supply cupboard, along with Mr Malfoy” he said, seriously.

“Yes, sorry Professor” said Albus, looking at the floor

Longbottom sighed, “Nothing too much to worry about Albus, everyone makes mistakes and get detentions at some point. Just take a bit more care to follow the rules in future”

Albus was surprised by his reaction. Professor Longbottom had always been a fairly relaxed teacher, and he’d rarely shown a stricter side, but Albus was expecting a serious telling off for losing Gryffindor so many house points.

“Um, Professor” he started, “Is that everything you wanted to say about it?”

Longbottom let out a small chuckle, “Expecting me to scream and shout? You made a mistake, and you’ve been given a punishment for it. There’s no point in me giving you even more grief, just don’t be late for your detention!”

Albus allowed himself to smile slightly, “Yes sir, and sorry again”

With a nod, Longbottom accepted the apology. “Nothing to worry about, now go and enjoy the rest of your Sunday” he stood up and motioned towards the door.

Albus opened it, “Thank you, Professor” he said, before quickly leaving into the cool air of the corridor, away from the welcoming fireplace.

*

That evening, Albus was sat in the quiet Gryffindor common room, scratching away at a piece of parchment with his quill. To his left, Bertie was doing the same thing, with Rose opposite him, her head buried in yet another text book.

History of Magic essays were always incredibly boring to write, but they’re made even worse when you have to write about Centaur legislation, a subject that Albus couldn’t believe anyone would ever study willingly.

“Rose, was the Fort William Incident in 1743, or 1843?” asked Albus

“Seventeen” replied Rose, not looking up from her book and nonchalantly turning the page.

“Thanks” Albus jotted the date down in his essay and turned to the clock, “We’ve been at this for three hours, and I still don’t feel like I’m anywhere near finished” he groaned, resting his head on the table.

“Well, if you’d started it the day we got it, like I told you to, you wouldn’t have this problem” she said, before letting out a yawn. Rose closed the book and held it under her arm, “I’m going to bed, see you two in the morning”

“Night” said Bertie, as he continued to write on his parchment.

Albus, thinking that it was now safe to take a quick break, rested his quill in the inkwell. He glanced around the room. Everyone else was either engrossed in their own homework, or quietly chatting, not paying any attention to two first years in one corner of the room. He tapped Bertie on the arm, making him jump slightly and looking up from his writing.

“What’s up, Albus?” he asked

Albus hesitated for a second, before talking, “Can you keep a secret?”

Bertie looked confused, but he nodded in response, “Of course, why do you ask?”

After one more glance around the room, making sure absolutely no one was listening, Albus leant closer to Bertie and lowered his voice, “I’m the one who lost us all those points last night” he said.

Shocked, Bertie blinked a few times, “What?”

“After I left the party, I went out for a walk and ended up being out for a bit longer than I intended. I bumped into Professor Marlowe, and, well...” he tailed off.

“You got caught?” said Bertie, clearly shocked.

Albus nodded, “Please don’t tell anyone” he pleaded “I can’t face everyone knowing that it was me, especially as it was James who actually won us those points in the first place”

“It’s fine, I won’t say anything” said Bertie, “Did you get any more punishments?”

“Detention” said Albus, “Tomorrow night, we have to clean out the potions supply cupboard”

Bertie frowned, “We?”

Albus looked up at him with his mouth agape, not knowing if he should explain that Scorpius was with him or not. He was going through the options in his head when he heard someone call out.

“Albus!”

He turned around and saw James striding into the common room, a gaggle of girls alongside him.

“I’ll catch up with you later” he said to one of them, with a wink. As the girls exited to their dormitory, James pulled up a chair and sat next to his younger brother.

“Can I help you?” asked Albus, “I hope I’m not keeping you from snogging…who was that anyway?”

“Kelsey Short. You know, the one was trying out for Chaser. She failed, but I’m still going to Madam Puddifoot’s with her in a few weeks…” replied James, looking wistfully at the stairs leading to the dormitories. “Anyway, I’ve got a favour to ask”

Albus put his quill down, “What?”

James looked around the room and lowered his voice, “Hagrid’s asked me to help him clean up after the Hippogriffs tomorrow night”

“Delightful” Albus snorted

“He cornered me a few minutes ago, I’d just managed to ask Kelsey out too. Anyway, I’ve had enough of helping him with these little ‘adventures’, I need you to jump in and do it for me” he said.

Albus let out a laugh, “You’ve got to be joking! You’re so on your own with that job!”

James quickly shushed him, “Keep it quiet you moron, I’ve got a reputation to maintain” he frantically reached into his pocket and pulled out a half-eaten chocolate bar. “Here, it’s from Honeydukes, I got it last week. I’ll give you the rest of it if you help Hagrid out”

“It’s going to take a lot more than that…” said Albus, who was finding his brothers begging to be a nice distraction from the feelings of guilt he still had.

James scowled at him and rummaged through his coat again, pulling out a couple of loose sickles and dropping them on the table in front of Albus. He looked at him hopefully, but Albus simply shook his head in response. Clearly getting more desperate, James pointed at Albus’ half written essay.

“Is that History of Magic? I’ll write the rest of it for you”

“Like you can even remember what you did in History of Magic last week!”

James groaned and stood up, “One day I’m a Quidditch hero, and the next I’m being asked to scoop up Hippogriff droppings, I’m going to demand that Hagrid asks you next time”.

“Fine, whatever. Can I get on with my essay now?”

James shrugged and went to walk up to his dormitory, only to stop and turn back to the two first years, “I don’t suppose either of you two know who lost all those points last night?”

The pair shook their heads.

“Hmm, fair enough” he said, before waving them goodbye and heading upstairs.

Bertie turned to Albus, who was staring into the space James had been just a few seconds before. “You should tell James” he said, simply.

“What?” replied Albus

“You should tell James it was you, he clearly wouldn’t care”

“How’d you come to that conclusion?”

Bertie put his quill down, “Did he look annoyed to you?”

“I don’t know, maybe?” said Albus

“I just think you’d feel a lot better if you told him it was you”

Albus ignored him, “Just let me finish this, please…”

So they continued to write, in silence.

*

The next day arrived quicker than Albus wanted it to. His lessons seemed to simultaneously drag on and go by too quickly. He had been a bit too distracted in Defence Against the Dark Arts, as he managed to miss the mannequin his Knockback Jinx was supposed to hit, and instead knocked over a shelf of dark detectors. Professor Constantine repaired the damage with a flick of his wand and advised Albus that he ought to be getting more sleep.

Transfiguration went even worse, as he failed to transfigure his frog into a wallet. He had succeeded only in creating a wallet with two hind legs and a long tongue. Professor Mutati gave him additional homework so he would get it by the time the next lesson came around.

Potions went little better, mainly because he spent most of the lesson avoiding Professor Marlowe’s gaze. His Forgetfulness Potion was an unappetising brown colour, and was bubbling a bit too much for his liking. Albus half-heartedly tried to rescue it by adding some water, but this just seemed to make the situation worse. With a sigh he turned the heat off and started to stir it.

“Do you need some help?” said Rose, looking up from her own, perfect looking, potion.

“It’s fine, don’t think it will do much good anyway”, sighed Albus

Professor Marlowe then called out, “Five minutes left, please start finishing up”

There was a clang of ladles on cauldrons as people rushed to finish up their potions. A rack of glass vials shook alarmingly as someone brushed past in an attempt to get more mistletoe berries from the stores. Albus took one last look at his potion. It had only become darker, nothing like the orange colour it was supposed to be. He took a quick look in Berties’ cauldron to see how his looked, and it was clearly better, though far from perfect.

Marlowe had made his way to their desk and was peering into everyone’s cauldrons, inspecting their efforts. After praising Rose, and giving her ten more points for Gryffindor, he noted that Bertie was steadily improving and gave him five points for the effort.

He then looked at Albus’ “Oh dear, not your finest attempt I’m afraid, Mr Potter” he said, simply, “This hasn’t had anywhere near enough care paid to it” he shook his head and walked away without another word.

Rose looked between Albus and the retreating Marlowe. “Are you ok, Al?” she asked

Albus poured out the contents of his cauldron into a nearby drain and ignored her, he wasn’t in any sort of mood to discuss his feelings.

But Rose persisted, “Albus, I know you’re doing that deliberately” she snapped, whilst leaning over him, “You’ve been in another world all day”

Albus finally looked up as he smacked the cauldron back on top of the table, “I’m fine, Rose” he said shortly, before continuing to pack his things away.

Rose tutted, a noise that he’d heard hundreds of times before, it seemed to run in the family, “I know you’re lying. But I suppose I can’t force you to say anything to me”.

Albus looked over to the back corner of the room, where Scorpius was also stood tidying up his equipment. The others on his desk weren’t giving him a second look, but Albus could see Caedus giving him glances and smirking from another desk, whilst his little gang laughed.

The class had tidied up quickly and they started to make their way out of the door. Albus slung his bag over his shoulder and started to follow his housemates, when Caedus called out over the crowd.

“Hey Scorp, and Potter, have fun in detention tonight!” he cackled, before running down the corridor, the other Slytherins in tow.

Albus stopped walking and let his shoulders slump. The secret was out now, and it was guaranteed to spread around the school like wildfire. By dinner, half the school would know. In front of him, the Gryffindors had turned to face him, only Bertie looked sympathetic. Sophie King and Amy Barnes both looked shocked, whilst Matt Bingham had a look of barely concealed anger on his face.

“You’re the one who lost us all those points?!” he said, a scowl painted on his face.

Albus sighed, “Yes, I’m sorry” he said quietly.

“You’d better be! We thrashed Slytherin for nothing!”

“I didn’t mean to, ok?” replied Albus, desperately, “I just made a mistake”

Matt turned away in disgust, practically dragging Leon with him. Leon raised a hand in apology, but followed Matt anyway.

Albus looked at the others, “Got anything else to say?” he said, almost daring them to speak up.

They shook their heads in response. Albus budged past them and strode down the corridor, head firmly facing the floor. He knew that the next few days were unlikely to be pleasant for him, especially once James got wind of what had happened. Not being keen to go back to the common room, Albus walked up the stairs and took a left, heading towards the library. Once he got in there, he found a spare desk in the quietest part of the room, sat down at it, and sulked.

*

About an hour had passed and Albus had made his way back to the Potions classroom for his detention. Scorpius was already stood outside, and he gave Albus a short nod of greeting when he arrived, not saying a word however. It was only a minute before Professor Marlowe opened the door and beckoned them inside. He led them towards the supply cupboard. It was a small, dusty, room filled from top to bottom with glass jars of ingredients. Common ingredients filled the lower shelves, whilst the rarer and more dangerous ones were brushing the ceiling, far out of reach of any curious first years.

Marlowe turned to them, “I would like you to give this cupboard a good clean. Cloths and dusters are over there”, he pointed to the end of the room, “I would also like you to make a note of how much of these lower ingredients we have, so we can order more if necessary. Is that clear?”

“Yes Professor”, said the boys in unison.

Marlowe nodded and went to his desk at the front of the classroom, where he pulled out some unmarked homework and started to read through it. In the meantime, Albus and Scorpius had taken their robes off, rolled up their sleeves, and started to dust the glass jars. No words were shared between them as they got on with their work, just the odd “excuse me” here and there. The work was particularly mind-numbing. Albus would pick up a jar, rub it down, then put it back. It required no thought or skill. The only things they could hear was as slight clink as each jar was put back in place, with the occasional cough from Professor Marlowe.

Albus stepped out of the cupboard to catch a few seconds of fresh air. He rubbed some sweat off his forehead and looked towards the front of the classroom. He was slightly surprised by what he saw. He had expected to see a vast pile of homework, but instead there was just a single book closed on the desk, alongside some pieces of parchment. More curiously, there was no sign of Marlowe himself. His interest piqued, Albus looked around the classroom, to make sure the professor wasn’t in the room.

Satisfied, Albus tiptoed to the front desk and inspected the book. On the face of it, the book was entirely unremarkable. It was bound in weathered old leather that had no writing or any identifying marks on it. It was small, but quite thick, not a large tome. Two leather clasps would hold it closed, but they were unattached to the back cover.

Albus went to open the book when Scorpius poked his head around the cupboard door, looking to see where Albus was.

“Albus” he said, conscious not to speak too loudly, “What are you doing?”

He turned around, his hand on the book, “Nothing, just taking a look at something”

Scorpius’ eyes turned to the book, “Don’t touch Marlowe’s things, you’ll get into more trouble!”

“I’m just having a look, don’t worry”

“I’m not taking any blame if he walks in and sees you doing that, ok? Now come on, there’s only a couple of jars left to do” he returned to the cupboard.

Albus returned to the book, ignoring Scorpius. He moved his fingers over the cover, feeling the scratched and weathered surface. Taking a breath, he flipped the cover open. Blank. Albus flicked through a few more pages, but there was more of the same, just entirely blank. In contrast to the ancient looking exterior, the pages inside were pristine white, as if they had never been touched before.

Suddenly, the door opened. Albus jumped back from the desk and quickly made himself look busy, waving his cloth in the air to get dust out of it. Marlowe stared at him as he walked to the front desk. Albus watched him out of the corner of his eye as he sat down and looked at the book. Marlowe’s eyes narrowed for a split second, then they flicked to Albus, hastily closing the book before turning back to the Gryffindor.

“Are you nearly done, Potter?” he said

“Yes sir”

“Get on with it then” said Marlowe, as he whipped the book off the table and placed it into a drawer underneath.

Albus quickly returned to the cupboard, and was greeted by Scorpius giving him a ‘you’re a complete idiot’ face’. They silently scrubbed dust off the last couple of jars and returned to Marlowe, who was stood up fiddling with a pocket watch.

“Finished?” he said

They both nodded in response.

“Good, back to your common rooms then. I don’t want to ever catch you out after dark again, is that clear?”

“Yes sir”

They exited the classroom and walked down the corridor, until they turned a corner that led towards the Grand Staircase. Scorpius pulled Albus to one side and into a small alcove.

“What exactly were you playing it back there?” he asked through gritted teeth.

Albus quickly looked around, “Didn’t you notice?”

“Notice what?”

“The book, the one on the desk”

Scorpius folded his arms, “I just saw you touching it, what was it?”

“I don’t know”

“You don’t know?” he scoffed, “Probably just a text book”

Albus shook his head vigorously, “It wasn’t a text book, it was completely blank!”

Scorpius shrugged, “So it was just a blank notebook”

“Trust me, it wasn’t” he poked his head out of the alcove and made sure no one was coming, “The cover was old, really old, but the pages were absolutely pristine”

Scorpius didn’t look convinced, “And this is interesting to you because?”

“Why would he have a random blank book out like that? It just seems really odd…” Albus tailed off for a second, and suddenly remembered something from the other night. “He had a book then too” he said.

“Eh?” said Scorpius

“The night we were caught. Marlowe was talking to himself and holding a book, it might’ve been the same one”

Scorpius let out a sigh, “I think you need to go to bed…”

“Shut up! I know what I saw!” he paused and took a deep breath. “Sorry. I just find this whole thing really strange. When Marlowe saw the book open on the table, he looked concerned. Why would he be concerned about someone seeing a blank notebook?”

“Hmm” Scorpius rubbed his chin, “I’ll admit that that’s a little bit odd. It still doesn’t justify all this paranoia you seem to have”

Albus looked at the floor. Perhaps he was just tired, but he was convinced that something was up with Professor Marlowe. It all seemed just a little bit too odd to just be a coincidence.

“Come on, let’s go before Marlowe walks by” said Scorpius, tugging at Albus’ sleeve.

“Coming” said Albus quietly.

They soon found themselves in the Grand Staircase, where the last dregs of students coming from dinner were making their way back to their common rooms.

Scorpius looked at Albus, “Look, I know this has been a pretty bad couple of days, but I’m sure there’s nothing in that book thing, just forget about it”

“I still think there is, but I’ll sleep on it” said Albus, staring straight ahead, “See you later” he walked straight up a staircase that had slotted into place next to him.

Without a second glance back down, Albus simply kept walking, thoughts of the blank book still racing in his dead, despite his promise to Scorpius. He couldn’t let his hunch go. A trip to the library would be in order.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Been a little while since the last update, but I'm still plugging away at it, don't worry! This chapter turned out a little bit differently than how I originally planned it, but I think the changes I made will benefit the story in the long run. I'm pretty much at the half way point of the book now, not quite as quickly as I thought I would be, but who cares?
> 
> More to come, hopefully a bit sooner than this time though.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	9. The Library and the Train

#  **Chapter Nine: The Library and the Train**

As the month turned from November to December, so did the weather. The school was now covered in the snow that had been threatening to land for days. Spontaneous snowball fights had been breaking out amongst the students all week, much to the annoyance of Filch, who was starting to brush the snow away with increasing vigour, all whilst dodging errant snowballs being thrown across the courtyard.

The castle was also being decorated more and more each day. Some of the suits of armour were now wearing party hats and singing carols whenever anyone walked past them. The Great Hall had become home to four enormous Christmas trees, all dragged there from the forest by Hagrid. If you arrived at breakfast early enough, you would catch Professor Flitwick decorating them with quaffle sized baubles.

The relaxed atmosphere of the season had even seeped its way into their lessons. Homework had almost dried up completely, and the lessons had become little more than revision sessions on subjects they’d already covered. With more time to themselves, students were now looking forward to a relaxing Christmas break.

However, one person wasn’t.

Albus had found himself sat in the library yet again, with another vast pile of books placed haphazardly on the table around him. He thumbed his way through a large book called ‘ _Deciphering the Indecipherable’_ ; a volume so dreary that he wouldn’t give it a second glance if he didn’t feel it was important to give it a read. With a sigh, Albus glanced up at a window on the other side of the room. The grey clouds promised to cover the castle with yet more snow overnight, though he doubted that the pristine covering would last long once everyone in the school had made a million snowmen out of it.

A small group of seventh years walked through Albus’ gaze, and his eyes followed them out of sight behind a bookshelf. They were the only ones who had been using the library recently, taking advantage of the reduced distractions to get some revision in, no doubt.

Albus had come to recognise the regulars over the previous weeks. There was Samuel White, a burly Ravenclaw who was looking to join the Department for Magical Games and Sports after graduation; Melissa Jacobs, the Hufflepuff who always wore a large polka dot bow in her hair, she was frantically researching Manticores last week; Jonty Muscat, the deep voiced Gryffindor prefect, who was apparently juggling three girlfriends at once. Yes, Albus had seen them and many more besides. They rarely paid attention to him though, just the odd strange look as he struggled past with towers of books in his arms.

Closing the book, Albus folded his arms on the table and rested his head on them. Marlowe’s book had been playing heavily on his mind, and he had been searching for any hint as to what it might be. His research had actually thrown up some interesting ideas. From books that only revealed their secrets when an incantation was spoken aloud, to scrolls that were treated with a potion to make the words on them only appear to the owner. Albus figured that all of these things would be obvious to Marlowe, so he was on the lookout for some more obscure methods of concealing the contents of a book. That knowledge was harder to find; meaning he was now having to trawl through the densest books in the library.

Albus closed his eyes for a few seconds, but he felt a tap on his shoulder. Blinking, he lifted his head off the table to find himself staring at Victoire.

“Feeling sleepy?” she asked, with a chuckle. She smiled warmly at him before taking a look at the many books spread around the table. “Been doing some light reading again, have we?”

“Sort of…” said Albus, stretching his arms above his head, “What time is it?”

“Nearly dinner”

Albus dropped his arms, “Good”

“Are you ever going to tell me why you’re reading all this” she waved her hand at the books.

This wasn’t the first time they’d had a conversation like this recently. In fact, Victoire had turned up most days to talk to him; she was near enough the only person he’d interacted with for the last few weeks. Victoire had always been one of Albus’ favourite cousins. As the oldest she had watched all of her younger cousins grow up, so had almost become an older sister to all of them. She always seemed to know if something was troubling them, and would do her best to solve whatever issues they had.

“Just curious about things” shrugged Albus

“You’re not fooling anyone Albus, something’s up with you” said Victoire, more seriously.

“I’m fine”

“Are you?” she crossed her arms, “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were still annoyed about your detention the other week”

Albus turned away and didn’t answer, mainly because Victoire was right.

Victoire softened her tone, “If it’s any consolation, people aren’t talking about it in the common room anymore, that sort of gossip always goes away after a while”

“Not everyone” spat Albus.

Victoire sighed, “Do you want me to speak to Matt? I can get him to drop it”

Raising his voice, Albus replied, “It won’t help. He’s completely obsessed with it, brings it up every single day. Won’t talk to me about it though, will he? He just bangs on and on about how selfish I am to anyone who’ll listen…” He looked up at Victoire, she was staring back with a sympathetic look in her eyes. Albus stopped talking and ran his hand through his hair, making it stick up at odd angles.

After a few seconds of silence, Victoire spoke, “I can’t fix those problems for you, Albus, sometimes you just have to sort things out yourself””

Albus leant on his hand and scratched away at the table, avoiding Victoire’s gaze, “I’m fine” he said shortly.

Victoire shook her head and pulled her wand out of her pocket, “Come on, let’s get these books away and go to dinner” she flicked her wand, causing the books to hover in the air and slowly float their way back to their shelves.

Reluctantly, Albus pulled his bag over his shoulder and followed Victoire out of the library.

*

After spending another dinner sat at the end of the table, far from his peers, Albus was now sat in yet another empty corner of the common room. He was doing his best to ignore the chatter and laughter, which seemed to fill every second, and finish off some Defence Against the Dark Arts homework; even though it wasn’t due until after the holidays. James was on the other side of the room, recounting a play he’d pulled off in Quidditch practice earlier that day, he was taking great joy in showing exactly how far he’d managed to dive to his audience.

Albus scratched away on his parchment, forcing the words out from the end of his quill. He heard the portrait door open, followed by a loud group of chattering students. The voices came into view of Albus, it was the first years. Matt led them in, loudly talking about a snowball fight they had been in. Albus glanced at them, and was pleased to see that they hadn’t spotted he was sitting there.

Bertie emerged slightly later than the rest, looking around the room, eventually finding Albus. He raised his hand and walked over to him.

“Hey Albus” he said, “I didn’t see you at dinner”

“No, I was down the end”

“I see” Bertie scratched his shoulder, “Are you ok? It feels like we haven’t really spoken for a while”

“We talked in Defence Against the Dark Arts yesterday, didn’t we?” Albus replied simply.

“About the lesson. I meant we haven’t actually talked about anything outside of them for weeks…” Bertie played with the end of his sleeve.

Albus shrugged, “Nothing to talk about I guess” he turned back to his essay, “I’m just going to finish this then go to bed, if that’s ok”

It wasn’t a question that needed answering. Bertie stood there for a few seconds, thinking of what to say next, when Matt called over from the other table.

“Oi, Bertie! Are you going to teach us that _Lumos_ charm?”

He looked back to where the other first years were sat and nodded at them, before turning back to Albus, “Do you want to join us?”

Without looking up from the essay, Albus responded, “Not really”

Bertie sighed and joined the other first years at their table, as the room filled with yet more noise as more Gryffindors returned from dinner.

Several minutes passed and Albus was making little progress, Saturday night in the common room was no place to get work finished. Frustrated, he threw his quill onto the table and gave up for the evening. He looked around and saw that the other first years were still chatting away and messing about with various charms. Rose was sat laughing at something Matt had just said, a scene that annoyed Albus immensely. ‘Why on earth do they like Matt so much?’ he thought. The idea of both of his close friends now being more friendly with someone like Matt Bingham over him was unfathomable.

He shoved his half-finished essay and quill into his bag, threw it over his shoulder, and stomped his way up to the dormitory. He didn’t even look at the others when he walked past the table. James was sat on a ledge next to the staircase, and his eyes briefly left Kelsey Short and fell on Albus as he walked by him and up the stairs. When he entered into the warm dormitory, he could only think about how nice it would be to have the whole room to himself. He sat on his bed and pulled the curtains closed, before laying back and gazing up at the ceiling. It had been a long term, and he just wanted the last two weeks of it to go by as quickly as possible.

*

Professor Constantine was striding across the front of the classroom, delivering his final lecture of the term. His long robes billowed behind him, their gentle movements were almost hypnotic to his captive audience.

“Remember, half the skill of defensive magic comes from understanding the theory behind it” he punctuated each sentence with his hand, “Even though you won’t be able to practice the spells themselves during your holiday, I expect you all to study your textbooks and review your notes. In the new year, we will be starting on some more complex ideas; I want you all to be as prepared as possible”

The bell rung out across the grounds as Constantine finished his sentence, prompting a few students to start packing away, but he settled them down with a simple gesture.

“I’ve been impressed with your work this term, you’ve all shown great enthusiasm and really thrown yourselves into the class. Enjoy your break, you’ve earned it”. With a warm smile and a raise of his hands, the class was dismissed.

The room was filled with shouts of, “Thanks Professor” and “See you next term sir” as the class filed out of the classroom and into the corridor.

For the Gryffindors, this was their last class of the term. The inclement weather meant that their final flying lesson had been cancelled, not that this disappointed anyone, the last thing they wanted to be doing was standing outside with snow up to their knees.

Matt Bingham stretched his arms above his head and yawned, “I’m glad that’s done. I’ve still got packing to do, anyone else?” he turned back to the others.

“I don’t need to now” said Sophie, “My parents are going to Australia to visit my big brother, I got the message last night”

Bertie looked at her ruefully, “That’s a shame, but why aren’t you going?”

“It’s a bit last minute, he doesn’t get much time off”

“But you’ll be here all by yourself!”

“Well, not exac-OW!” Jessie Sears had just thrown her arms around her best friend and pulled her into a tight hug, cutting Sophie off.

She grinned, “She’s going to have me, all to herself!”

Leon Newland scratched his head, “But what about your parents?”

Jessie loosened her grip and hung her arm around Sophie’s shoulders, “Believe me, I’ll have a much nicer time here than I would around _them_ at Christmas”

Leon chuckled, “Whatever you say! Try not to wreck the common room too much while we’re gone, ok?”

“No promises!” she winked

Albus observed the whole scene from the back of the group, walking silently along the corridor that lead towards the grand staircase. His plans for Christmas had been settled some time ago, two weeks back at home, even though part of him wanted to stay at Hogwarts and continue looking into the blank book.

They passed by the entrance to the Library, and Albus hesitated for a second, taking a glance inside. The room looked deserted, apart from the vulture-like figure of Madam Pince sitting behind the front desk. This would be the last chance he would get to do some research until January. Just as he turned to go through the door, Matt called out.

“Going in there again, are you?” he sneered, “You’ve spent more time in there than you have eating recently”  
  
Albus closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, “Just leave me alone”

“Don’t need to tell me twice” he snapped

Bertie turned to Matt, “Please stop it…” he said quietly.

“I’m not doing anything” Matt shrugged, “Come on, Potter’s just going to annoy Madam Pince and lose us even more points”.

The other Gryffindors exchanged awkward looks with each other, but said nothing. Both Bertie and Rose looked at Albus for a little bit longer than the others, sympathy in the eyes of both. Albus glared at them, and Rose had to tug Bertie away and down the corridor.

Albus wanted to punch Matt more than anything, but he kept a lid on his feelings and walked straight into the library. Madam Pince watched him all the way from the entrance and down between the rows of bookshelves. The library was indeed deserted, not even seventh years wanted to be studying on the last day of term, and the silence was more than welcome for Albus.

Sitting down at his usual spot at a desk between two bookshelves, Albus leaned on his hand and looked at the dusty books stacked up all around him. How many of those had he read over the last few weeks?

The sound of footsteps echoed around the room, and Albus quickly made himself look busy by pulling out his notebook and quill. He didn’t want to be given a telling off by Madam Pince for not working. The footsteps slowed down as they approached the row where Albus was sat, then stopping entirely as they reached it. A blonde head poked out from behind the bookshelf and looked straight at Albus.

“Hi Albus” said Scorpius Malfoy, “Thought I’d find you here”

Albus was relieved and closed his notebook, “I thought you were Pince for a second”

Scorpius frowned, “I won’t take that as a compliment” he stepped out from behind the bookshelf and sat down opposite Albus. “Feels like we haven’t spoken in weeks”

“That’s because we haven’t”

“I know, but I’ve wanted to” said Scorpius, running his hand through his slicked hair, “I never realised just how boring it was being by myself all the time”

Albus looked at him for a second, before turning his gaze elsewhere, “I know the feeling”

“So I’ve heard” he lowered his voice, “I’m guessing you didn’t listen to me when I said that the book was nothing?”

Albus grimaced, “Not exactly”

Scorpius let out a small chuckle, but stifled it enough to avoid disturbing Madam Pince, “I’ll give you credit, you’ve definitely changed since that night” he looked down at the table. “To be honest, I think you were right”

“About what?”

“The book” he looked up at Albus, “You were right, there’s something up with it”

Albus blinked a couple of times, “What do you mean?”

“I’ll admit that what you said that day sort of stuck with me, Marlowe was acting a bit odd” he scratched his nose, “So I thought I’d keep an eye on him, from a distance”

Albus leaned forward, “And?”

“He carries that book nearly everywhere!” he raised his arms to emphasise the point, “He’s not holding it the whole time, but you can always see it sitting in his jacket pocket”. He lowered his voice, “Why would he always have it on him like that?”

Albus leant back in his chair, a smile on his face, “It must be something special then. There’s surely no other reason why he’d be so protective of it”

“I mean, it could just be a diary, but why carry one around with you all the time?”

Thinking in silence for a moment, Albus crossed his arms, “Even if it is just a normal book, I still want to know what’s up with it”

Scorpius nodded in agreement, “Same here”

“So, why don’t we research it together after Christmas?”

“I’d like that” Scorpius smiled, “Just as long as we don’t have to get detention again to find the book!”

Albus laughed, “I’ll agree to that”

“What do you think the book is then?” asked Scorpius

“It’s clearly something old, and I think it has something to do with Hogwarts”

“What makes you say that?”

Albus lowered his voice, “It’s just a theory, but it might be why he carries it around with him all the time, so he has it ready if he sees…something”

“That’s a little bit vague” sighed Scorpius

“I’m only guessing, we won’t know until we can see it for ourselves!”

Scorpius chuckled, “True, I guess we should work out how to…” he stopped. The sound of frantic footsteps filled the air.

Madam Pinces’ sharp features suddenly appeared in front of them. “The Library is a place for silent study!” she screeched, “If you’re just going to chat, I suggest you leave!”

The pair looked at each other and, without a word, made their way out of the library and into the cold corridor. Scorpius rubbed his hands together to keep them warm.

“I’ve got to finish packing, we should meet up after the holidays, yeah?” asked Scorpius.

Albus nodded, “Definitely” he grinned, “This is exciting, isn’t it? A real mystery!”

Scorpius shrugged, “Maybe, still could be nothing though”

“Lighten up, it is exciting”

“I suppose we should rule nothing out” said Scorpius, raising his hands, “Anyway, I should go, not much time left in the day”. He started to walk backwards down the corridor. “Have a good Christmas, Albus Potter”

Albus gave him a small wave, “You too, Scorpius Malfoy”

Scorpius gave him a smirk in response, before turning around and walking down the corridor, away from Albus, who looked at his back for a few seconds. He smiled slightly and began to walk towards the Gryffindor common room, his mood significantly lifted.

*

The next day a throng of Hogwarts students struggled through the snow to get to Hogsmeade Station, dragging their heavy luggage behind them. The usual carriage transport that would ordinarily take them between the school and the station was unable to traverse the thick snow. By the time they had reached the scarlet train and stowed their trunks away, they were all wet, cold, and tired.

Albus had found himself in a compartment with Bertie, Rose, Amy Barnes and Hope Okoye. They’d spent most of the journey to London fast asleep, the walk had completely drained them. Eventually though, they woke up, but little conversation was shared. Amy pulled out a set of cards and they all played a few rounds of Exploding Snap, to pass the time.

By the time they’d exhausted their enthusiasm for the game, the sky outside had gone dark, with the landscape starting to get more and more urban. London was approaching.

Albus stood up and stretched his arms above his head. The journey home had felt much longer than their first journey in the summer, probably because they’d barely said a word to each other for the entire journey. He slid the door open and took a few steps down the carriage, hoping to find Scorpius before they reached Kings Cross. Just as Albus went to open the door into the next carriage, the compartment to his left opened and James stepped out, a fiery look on his face.

His eyes widened for a moment when he saw Albus standing there, but he gained his composure, “Hi Al, you good?”

Albus looked behind him and into the compartment. Kelsey Short was sat there, staring intently out of the window. “I’m fine, long journey, that’s all”

James exhaled and leant against the passageway wall, “Tell me about it”

“Everything ok?”

He turned his gaze down the carriage and away from the compartment door, “No, not at all”

Albus inclined his head towards the door, “Is it something to do with Kelsey?”

James leant his head back, “Take my advice Albus, don’t bother getting a girlfriend, they just leave in the end”. He glanced into the compartment. Kelsey looked back and their eyes met for a split second, before she frowned at him and turned away.

Albus picked awkwardly at a loose bit of paint on the wall, “Did you two break up?” he asked simply, even though he knew the answer.

“Sort of” said James, who was now walked away from his compartment, Albus followed him, and they ended up in a vestibule area. James perched himself on a luggage stand, his legs swinging underneath.

“I really liked her, you know” he said, not looking at Albus, “Then she goes and does something like that”

“What did she do?” asked Albus

James ignored him and carried on, “I mean really, how selfish can you be?!”

“What. Did. She. Do?” asked Albus, again.

He snorted, “She told me to quit Quidditch”

“What? Why?”

James shrugged, “Something about me spending more time practicing than with her. I mean sure, I take Quidditch seriously, but I’m allowed to do my own things. Not to mention how she always drags me to talk to her friends, but Merlin help me if I want to go and talk to mine…”

“Sounds like you weren’t right for each other” Albus said

“You got that right, no idea why it all came out now though. I thought we were getting on great, until she dragged me into a compartment by ourselves” James shook his head and slapped his hands on the wall. “No point getting worked up about it though, all in the past now”

Albus blinked in disbelief, “What? That’s it? You’re just going to move on like that?”

James nodded, “I’m only going to be fourteen next month, not like I have to meet the love of my life just yet”. He patted Albus on the shoulder, “Advice for life, all kids are drama queens, and it gets even worse once you become a teenager”

“And you’re so above that, right?” Albus smirked

“I am now” he lowered his voice, “You should’ve seen me when I was your age though, I cried for a week when Shannon Jordan broke up with me”

Albus bit his lip and tried to suppress a laugh. Noticing this, James narrowed his eyes and looked at him accusingly.

“What?”

The laugh slipped out, though it was more of a splutter by the time it came out, “You cried for a whole week?”

James rolled his eyes, “I knew you’d react like that”. He crossed his arms, “Look, I’ve seen how you’ve been acting recently, you’ve been even more gloomy than usual”

Albus leant back against the wall, “Don’t you start too, I’ve already had this from Victoire”

James raised his hand, “Don’t worry, I won’t. I just want you to know how stupid you’ll feel when you look back on it in two years time”.

“Thanks?”

“Don’t mention it” said James, with a raise of his eyebrows. He looked out of the window. The lights of London had turned the sky outside orange, they were close now. “Come on, let’s get ready. Can’t keep the family waiting out in the cold for too long”

The Hogwarts Express rumbled into Kings Cross soon after, letting off several loud whistles as it ground to a halt. Doors were flung open as students, anxious to get back home, spilled out onto Platform 9 ¾ and into the arms of their parents.

Albus looked around to see if he could spot either of his amongst the crowd, but it was too packed for him to see anything. James nudged him in the back and handed him his trunk, causing him to lose balance slightly.

He felt another nudge, but this time it was Bertie, “Have a good Christmas, Albus” he said with a smile.

Albus nodded, “Yeah, you too”

Bertie walked out into the crowd. Albus couldn’t see where his parents were, but they must have been there.

James tugged Albus’ sleeve and pointed over the heads of a group of people in front of them. He felt relieved. Stood at the back of the crowd, against the brick wall, were his parents. His mother was holding Lily, his sister, up to wave at them both. They waved back, Albus hadn’t realised how much he had missed her.

To his mothers left, he caught his fathers eye. The messy hair, the glasses, the lighting bolt scar. Everyone on the platform seemed to be doing a double take and pointing at him. But Harry Potter was only looking at his youngest son, the warmest smile resting on his face.


	10. The Secret Present

#  **Chapter Ten: The Secret Present**

On Christmas morning, Albus was woken up by the orange glow of the sunrise creeping through a gap in his curtains. He pulled himself deeper into his duvet as the light fell on his face, wanting to stay as warm as he could. Eventually, he rolled onto his back and slowly opened his eyes. He glanced around his room.

The cosy, wooden, interior of the Potter Cottage was a world away from the stony, cavernous Hogwarts Castle. Albus had not quite become used to having his own room again. Whereas in the dormitory he would have to deal with Matt snoring, Bertie’s occasional night talking, and Shaun McLaren’s six o’clock starts every morning, here he only could wake up whenever he pleased.

Letting out a yawn, Albus sat up and stretched his arms high above his head, before running his fingers through his messy hair, trying to get it to go flat. He stepped out of bed and onto the warm rug on the floor. He could hear Lily making a commotion downstairs, as well as the faint smell of bacon. Albus pulled on his maroon dressing gown and stepped out onto the landing. The smell of bacon was even stronger here; Albus practically jumped down the stairs to reach it.

He burst into the kitchen to see Lily racing jumping up and down, a huge grin on her face. His mother was stood over a sizzling pan; while his bleary-eyed father, still in his pyjamas, did his best to calm Lily down.

“Presents at lunchtime, Lily, you know that,” he said, yawning. He gave Albus a wave, “Happy Christmas, Al” he said, walking over to him and giving him a hug, “I’m just going to get dressed, make sure Lily doesn’t knock anything off the table!” with that, he left the kitchen.

Lily bounced over to Albus, “What did you get me, Al?” she asked with wide eyes, “I got you a-“

“No, Lily!” called her mother, who was trying to juggle both cooking the bacon and sorting out the boiling kettle, “How many times do I have to say?”

Lily pouted, “Sorry Mummy”, she skipped to the chair that their father had just vacated and sat down on it, resting her head on the table.

“Do you need a hand, Mum?” asked Albus, grabbing the kettle and moving it off the heat.

“Thank you Albus,” said Ginny, stuffing her wooden spoon into her apron pocket. She turned to Lily, “Tea, Lily?”

Lily nodded, “Yes please!”

Ginny smiled and pulled out the jar of sugar, “Milk and-“

“Two sugars, I know Mum,” said Albus, pouring out water into Lily’s mug.

Ginny chuckled, “I thought you might’ve forgotten”

As Albus was pouring out tea for his mother and father, the kitchen door swung open, as Harry walked in, looking rather smartly dressed in a shirt and waistcoat

“The ‘you-know-whats’ are under the tree now, Ginny” he avoided saying the word ‘presents’ around Lily. “The turkey is ready to go in, and I’ve removed the gnome that was stuck in the chimney” he clapped his hands together, “Is there anything else that needs doing?”

Ginny moved the bacon off the stove and put it onto a plate, “These need serving” she grinned, “And James needs to be woken up”

Harry glanced at his two younger children, “Any volunteers?” he smirked.

Without a single word, Lily jumped out of her chair and raced upstairs, her feet thumping on the wooden steps as she went. A shrill cry of “Wake up James!” was heard, along with creaking bedsprings as Lily jumped up and down on his bed.

A narrow-eyed James trudged into the kitchen a few minutes later, with Lily clasping onto his right hand, grinning. She let go once James had sat down, picking up her cup of tea and gently sipping it.

“Thanks, everyone…” said James, drinking his own tea a bit faster, “Really appreciate the wakeup call”

Harry chuckled and ruffled his elder sons hair, “Lighten up James, it’s Christmas”

“I still need a lie-in though”

“Nonsense! The others will be here soon anyway, so have your breakfast and get dressed!”

Jame groaned, “This day is supposed to be relaxing. Why couldn’t we go to The Burrow, like last year?”

“Your grandmother was getting a bit concerned that we couldn’t squeeze any more people around the table,” said Harry, “And I don’t think she’s quite forgiven Teddy for breaking that vase yet…”. He picked up a copy of the Daily Prophet and immediately turned to the back page, scanning its contents quickly. “Dear, have you really predicted that Puddlemere United will beat the Pride of Portree tomorrow…”

*

“More wine, Ron?”, asked Harry.

“Just a touch,” said Uncle Ron, who held up his glass to let Harry fill it, “Lovely stuff this, where’s it from?”

Harry glanced at the bottle, “No idea, it was a gift from work”. He looked at Teddy for an answer.

Teddy raised his hands, “No point asking me, I just chipped in a galleon”

Ron laughed, “It’s nice to see that Harry is still very much appreciated in the office!” he took a sip of his newly filled glass, “How are things over there, Teddy?”

“Same as usual. Digby finally retired though” he stuffed a roast potato into his mouth.

Ron nodded, “Yes, I heard about that. I suppose once you lose your eighth finger it becomes a bit harder to justify sicking around…”

The sound of a loud crack suddenly came from the other end of the table. Lily had just pulled a cracker with James, with the pair were now covered in glitter and wearing silly grins on their faces. Lily leapt up to force James into the frilly bonnet that had just come out of his cracker.

Ron laughed and reached under the table. Aunt Hermione noticed this and gave him a sharp elbow in the ribs.

“Not now Ron” she snapped

Ron ignored her and pulled out a much larger cracker, so large that Ron had to hold it in both hands to keep it together. He turned to his son, Hugo.

“Care to demonstrate this with me?” he winked

Hugo nodded and grabbed hold of one end.

“Fingers in ears everyone!” he called out across the table, though no one apart from Hermione and Rose took this advice. He turned back to Hugo, “On the count of three… One. Two. Three!”

Albus slammed his hands over his ears as they pulled the cracker apart. A huge bang shook the room, causing several pieces of crockery to rattle against each other, and nearly knocking a large glass bowl off the countertop. The room filled with bright purple smoke, which quickly cleared. A large leprechaun hat was now sitting on the table between them, Ron laughed and stuck it on Hugo’s head, with it immediately falling over his eyes.

“Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes Patented Earthquake Crackers,” he said, proudly shaking one end of it, “Part of our new Christmas range of gifts and gags”

“Honestly, Ron” tutted Aunt Hermione, rolling her eyes.

Ginny glared at her brother and shook her head, “You’re lucky nothing fell off the wall” she snapped.

“That was louder than last time,” said Rose, taking her fingers out of her ears.

Hermione scowled at her husband, “Now that you’ve done that, can you and George finally stop competing to make the most spectacular one possible?”

The rest of the table eventually saw the funny side and complimented Ron on his work. Bill and Fleur inspected their children to make sure the smoke hadn’t stained any of their clothes. Lily still had her hands clasped over her ears, clearly worried about further demonstrations from Ron.

Albus stood up from the table and poured himself a drink, the large Christmas dinner still sitting heavy in his stomach.

“Another Butterbeer?”

Albus turned around, and saw his Dad standing there with a grin on his face, “I’ll let you off, as it’s Christmas”. He turned to the rest of the room, “Present time!” he called out.

Lily and Hugo both bolted towards the tree, looking at each and every present to find which were theirs. They soon emerged from underneath, each covered in pine needles and barely keeping a pile of presents upright. Harry and Ron went to rescue them before they dropped any and reconvened in the sitting room.

The others checked that the youngest children were definitely done, before forming a makeshift assembly line, dividing the vast pile of presents out to who they belonged too.

Carrying their piles into the sitting room, they quickly got into the important work of opening them all. Albus opened his present from Lily first, knowing that she would ruin the surprise for him before long. She had given him a jar of homemade chocolate fudge. He found Lily’s gaze and thanked her from across the room, and she grinned back in return.

Ginny called over, “She was well supervised, don’t worry!”

Lily ripped open her present from Albus, gasping with delight as she pulled out a Gryffindor scarf. “Thank you!” she yelled.

Albus opened more of his presents. James had brought him a hamper of Honeydukes sweets, enough to last him well into the next term. His parents gave him a very smart looking dragonskin bound notebook, along with a luxury quill. He’d received a selection of joke products from Ron and Hermione, though she was quick to point out that she took no responsibility for it. Grandma Weasley had knitted him the traditional jumper, crimson with his initial sewn in gold. Teddy gave him a record from a muggle rock band, with him noting that he had snuck into one of their concerts the previous year by disguising himself as the lead singer. His present from Hagrid was a rather roughly hewn wooden tankard; Albus smirked at the visible bite marks that had clearly been left by Patch.

“Oh wow, awesome,” said James, who had just unwrapped his present from Albus, a brand-new pair of flying goggles. He gave Albus a friendly punch on the shoulder as thanks.

After the euphoria of opening presents had passed, the room quietened down and broke into groups, exchanging chit chat about anything and everything.

James and Ron were having an animated discussion about the Quidditch season so far, with Ron being particularly keen on hearing James’ Wronski Feint story.

Ginny, Hermione, and Fleur were quietly relaxing and taking the day in; each holding a glass of wine in their hands.

At the other end of the room, Harry and Bill were stood sipping tea, clearly talking about some Ministry matter, given their neutral expressions.

To Albus’ left, Rose let out a yawn, “I wish they’d stop jabbering, I can’t concentrate…”. She chewed the end of her quill before writing an answer down in her new book ‘ _1000 Rune Riddles to Melt Your Brain’,_ her present from Albus.

“How are you that far through already?!” he asked

Rose shrugged, “I like them, that’s all”

Albus shook his head and stood up to stretch, “Did you see where Teddy went, I’ve barely spoken to him all day”

She pointed at the conservatory doors, “He was in there with Victoire, so remember to knock…”

Albus nodded and knocked a couple of times on the glass door.

“Come in!” he heard Teddy say

Albus walked in and saw Teddy and Victoire sat in a leather armchair together, a jar of enchanted fire sat on the table in front of them to keep the room warm.

“Wotcher, Albus!” said Teddy, giving him a cheery wave, “How’re things?”

“Pretty good, thanks” he replied.

Victoire untangled herself from Teddy and flattened her hair, “I’m going to get a drink, do you want anything, Teddy?”

“No thanks, I’ve still got half a firewhisky to drink”

Victoire smiled and left the conservatory, leaving Albus and Teddy alone.

Teddy pointed at the armchair opposite him, “Take a seat!”. He then shook his head, turning his hair an even bright shade of blue.

Albus obliged, settling himself into the soft chair, his back sinking into it slightly, and the faint whiff of recently cleaned leather made him even more relaxed. He looked across at Teddy, to see him fiddling with the flame, making it a bit brighter, before leaning back into his own chair. He ran his finger through one of the many holes in his black jeans and brushed some blonde hair off his grey t-shirt.

“How’s Hogwarts been treating you?” he asked, after dropping one of the loose hairs on the floor.

Albus shrugged, “It’s been fine”

Teddy chuckled, “Just fine? That doesn’t sound good!”

“No no” Albus insisted, “It’s been good, it just went by quickly”

“I see” Teddy grinned and leant back in his chair, “My first term was a bit like that. One day you’re sat underneath the Sorting Hat, and before you know it, you’re on your way back to Kings Cross, like nothing had happened”

Albus smiled slightly, that feeling was all too familiar to him.

“How’s old Professor Constantine doing, by the way?” Teddy continued

“Oh, he’s good! Really knows his stuff”

“He was one of my favourites. Has a good eye, practically made me apply to the Auror Office when I was having doubts about it”, he let out a yawn, “Glad to hear he’s alright though” he tailed off.

A few moments of silence passed before Albus spoke again, “We have a new teacher too

Teddy looked up, “Septimus Marlowe?”

“Ye-yes, how did you know?”

“Septimus was in my year at Hogwarts, he was a Ravenclaw prefect”, smirked Teddy.

Albus stared at him, “I had no idea that you knew him”

Teddy glanced up at the ceiling, “I think ‘knew him’ is a bit strong. He liked to keep to himself, did Septimus, spent most of his time in the library”

“Doing what?”

“Reading” chuckled Teddy

Albus rolled his eyes, “I know that! What was he reading?”

“Anything, as far as I could tell. He was always an academic person”

“High grades then?”

“Very” nodded Teddy, “Outstanding’s across the board. I remember Professor Selbit saying that he was ‘one of the finest to ever graduate from Hogwarts’”

Albus’ brow furrowed and he looked away from Teddy, deep in thought.

“Sickle for your thoughts?” asked Teddy, leaning over to catch his gaze.

Albus looked back at him, “Nothing, just think it’s a bit odd that he’d decide to become a teacher…”

Teddy sipped his firewhisky, “Hmm, you’re not wrong. From what I understand, he had just about every department at the Ministry wanting to hire him” he put his glass down. “Apparently, even Kingsley Shacklebolt had sounded him out for a position in his office, it’s safe to say people were more than a little bit surprised at what he actually decided to do”. He chuckled to himself, “But then again, some of the greatest witches and wizards in history have decided to become teachers”

“Really?”

“Of course,” Teddy nodded, “A certain Albus Dumbledore, for one. Heard of him?” Teddy grinned.

Albus gave a short laugh in response. He ran his hand through his hair and looked at Teddy again, “What did you think of Professor Marlowe?”

“I liked him” he answered shortly, with a small shrug. “He was quiet, but always willing to help out if needed. Can’t say we keep in contact now, but I’m sure he’d answer my owl if I was to send him one”. Teddy leant back in his chair.

Albus spent a few moments thinking silently, and soon remembered something that Marlowe had said in their very first lesson.

“Apparently, Marlowe went on an around the world trip last year, know anything about that?”

“Hmm” Teddy looked up at the ceiling and into the night sky, “I know he talked about wanting to visit other magical schools in the past, so I guess he could’ve been touring those…”

“Any idea why?”

“Haven’t the foggiest!” chuckled Teddy, “As I said, he was an academic who was always looking for something to research, so I have little doubt he was just interested in how school life is in other countries”. He leant forward slightly, “Why are you so interested in him anyway?”

Albus hesitated and glanced at the door, he could see the silhouettes of his family behind the closed curtains and hoped that they wouldn’t walk in. He turned back to Teddy, who was now watching him with concern on his face, his hands clasped together.

“Can you keep a secret?” he asked quietly.

Teddy slowly nodded.

“I mean it because this might sound really stupid”

“I won’t tell anyone, don’t worry” Teddy replied softly.

Albus took a deep breath, “I think Marlowe is looking for something that’s hidden at Hogwarts”

Unmoved, Teddy just narrowed his eyes, “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know, if I’m honest” Albus spluttered, “He has this book, but it’s blank”

“A blank book?” Teddy raised an eyebrow

Albus sat up, “Do you know about it?” he spluttered.

“Slow down Albus, I don’t,” said Teddy, raising his hands to calm him down. “I don’t quite know what you’re implying, but I highly doubt Septimus will be doing anything untoward”

“I’m not implying anything, I’m just curious about the book!”

Teddy sighed, “There are plenty of strange things in this world, Albus, but a blank notebook isn’t one of them”

Albus stood up, “I’m telling you, it’s not just a blank notebook! The cover is ancient, but the pages inside are completely pristine!” he took a step towards Teddy, “That must be intriguing to you?"

“Calm down Al!” laughed Teddy, “Septimus Marlowe is a very clever man, I have no doubt that if he is doing anything at all, it’s purely for academic purposes!”

There was a knock on the door, and Harry poked his head into the conservatory.

“Everything ok in here?” he asked, “Thought I heard raised voices”

Teddy chuckled, “Albus was just telling me about his lessons with Dario Constantine, sounds like they’re as exciting as ever!”

Harry smiled, “That’s good to hear, he’s a good man is Dario” he rubbed his glasses, “Ron and Hermione are about to head off if you want to say goodbye”

Teddy nodded, “We’ll be right out” he waited for Harry to close the door, before turning back to Albus. “See, told you I wouldn’t say anything”

“Thanks…” said Albus quietly, his head turned towards the door.

Teddy nudged him gently, “Lighten up, it’s Christmas!” he brought himself to Albus’s eye level, “Don’t worry about Septimus, I’m sure nothing’s going on, though I don’t blame you for being curious”

“But how do you know that?”

He shrugged, “I don’t, but I do know that it’s not going to do you any good to keep on worrying about it”. Picking up his half-empty glass, he stood up and stepped towards the door. “Anyway, Hogwarts is fun enough without investigating your teachers” he grinned.

Albus forced a smile, but his feelings towards Marlowe hadn’t changed in the slightest, despite everything that Teddy had said.

*

After bidding all of their guest’s farewell, and after Albus’s mother had forced her three children to help her clean the house, Albus found himself sitting up in his bed, reading a chapter of _‘The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection’_ that he was supposed to write about before term started. He shoved a piece of Lily’s fudge into his mouth, she had done an excellent job with it.

Someone knocked on his door.

“Come in,” he said. His father entered the room.

“Bit late to be doing homework”, he smiled, “How was your day?”

“I had fun, thank you for the presents”

“You’re welcome,” said Harry, before beckoning him to follow.

He led Albus onto the landing and into his study. Albus had only been inside it a few times, it was a bit too small for more than one person to sit in for more than a few minutes. Albus brushed up a glass cabinet that contained a stone basin and took care not to knock anything off the top of it. An oak desk sat at the end of the room, right in front of the window. Harry went straight to it and opened up one of the draws with a flick of his wand, and then pulled out a flat cardboard box. He pointed at a stool that Harry used to reach the highest parts of the bookshelf. Albus sat himself down, whilst Harry turned his chair around and sat on it.

He undid the ribbons that held the box together but didn’t open it up. Instead, he leant towards Albus and lowered his voice.

“Don’t tell your brother or sister about this, promise?”

Albus nodded, wondering what was inside the box.

Harry opened it up and pulled out a neatly wrapped piece of silvery fabric. He placed it on his knees and stared at it for a few seconds, before taking a deep breath.

“When I was your age, I was given this on Christmas Day, my first one at Hogwarts. It was one of the first things I’d ever been given, and I’ve treasured it for many years”. His green eyes started to go slightly misty, and he paused. “Now, it seems right that it goes to you”

He stood up and unfurled the fabric. It was a cloak.

“Any ideas what it is?”

Albus shook his head.

“It’s an invisibility cloak,” he said, “An exceptionally old one at that”. He made Albus stand up and draped it around his shoulders.

Albus looked down at his body and was shocked to see that it had completely disappeared.

“Wow” he whispered, “It’s amazing”

Harry chuckled, “It is”. He pulled the cloak off him and placed it gently into his hands.

Albus sat back down again, clutching his present. “Why are you giving it to me?”

“Because I think you should have it,” said Harry, smiling, “It’s not to encourage any night time walking, of course!”.

Albus nodded slowly, “I’ll take care of it”

“Good to hear. It’s been handed down from one generation to the next, for centuries” he scratched his chin, “Technically, James should be the one to get it, but, well…” he chuckled, “Let’s just say he already has something from me, something just as useful as that if it’s used properly…”

Albus looked closely at the cloak. Every little movement he made caused the thin fabric to shimmer, highlighting the faint patterns that had been woven within. He stood up, holding the cloak with both of his hands

“Thank you, Dad,” he said.

“Use it well” winked Harry. He turned around and sat down at his desk, rummaging through a stack of haphazardly piled letters.

Taking this as his cue to leave, Albus walked back to his room. He perched himself on the edge of his bed and placed the folded cloak on his knees. Although he had heard stories about his father owning an invisibility cloak, he always assumed it was just his uncle exaggerating. He truly never believed that such a thing could exist and that it could be so old.

Albus pulled out his school trunk and carefully stowed it away underneath his jumpers, making sure it was completely out of sight. He wasn’t entirely sure why he had been given it, especially as his father had seemed keen to keep him out of trouble. Albus shut his trunk and pushed it back underneath the bed. Laying back on his mattress, he looked up at the ceiling, a spider was busy making a web amongst the rafters. With a yawn, Albus leant over and doused the lamp on his bedside table. He pulled his thick duvet over himself and settled down into a peaceful night’s sleep.


	11. Chapter 11

#  **Chapter Eleven: The Other Friend**

The Gryffindor Common Room was a hive of activity on the first evening back after the holidays. Some were showing off their presents to their friends, whilst others were sharing stories of family arguments that had occurred during Christmas Dinner, with one fifth year describing how his uncle had turned his grandmother’s ears into onions.

Albus was sat in one corner, putting the finishing touches to his Defence Against the Dark Arts essay, as well as consuming the last of Lily’s fudge. He shoved one into his mouth as he gave the essay a final read through.

Behind him, the other first years were enchanted by Sophie’s Christmas present, an elegant looking tawny owl.

“But your parents are muggles, where on earth did they get him?” asked Matt

Sophie stroked the owl’s head, “They sent a letter by muggle post to the owl emporium in Diagon Alley, I have no idea how it got there though. They felt bad about me being stuck at Hogwarts over Christmas, so they decided to get me something special”

“He’s adorable,” said a doting Amy Barnes, who was feeding him some treats, “What’s his name?”

“Kepler,” she said, “After the astronomer”

Jess giggled, “Professor Sinistra will love that!”

Albus rolled up his finished essay and put it in his bag, before quietly vacating the common room. No one else acknowledged his leaving, and he slipped upstairs and into the dormitory. He had managed to unpack most of his luggage, but he still had a number of unpaired socks sitting on his bed. Sitting down on top of it, he slowly started to pair them up, dumping them into his draw as he did so.

As he placed the final pair inside the drawer and pushed it shut, he laid back on the bed and closed his eyes for a few minutes, taking in the rare moment of silence. Just as he felt himself falling asleep, he heard the faint sound of tapping on glass. Albus sat up and looked around, the room was still empty. The tapping continued, and Albus peeked out of the window next to his bed. A large eagle owl was perched outside, a note held in its beak. Albus stepped out of bed and cracked the window open. The owl dropped the folded note into Albus’s outstretched hand, before immediately flying away.

Wondering just who would’ve written to him, he immediately sat back down on his bed and unfolded the note.

_‘Albus,_

_We should meet in the library after Potions tomorrow._

_Scorpius._

_Ps. I saw Marlowe holding it again today!’_

Albus smiled, he had so much to tell Scorpius about. He stuffed the note into his notebook and let out a yawn. He heard the sound of footsteps coming up from the common room, the blissful silence was surely about to be shattered.

Sure enough, the dormitory door swung open, followed by the entrance of Matt, Leon, Shaun, and, a bit further back, Bertie. The latter gave Albus a friendly wave and a small smile when he walked in, Albus gave him a small nod in response but nothing more.

Fortunately, Matt, Leon, and Shaun were too busy talking to each other to pay Albus any attention, and he took full advantage of this to close the curtains around him and quietly get ready for bed.

*

“Time’s up!” called Professor Marlowe, prompting much panic amongst the first years.

Albus just had time to drop the last of his Boom Berry Juice into the green liquid of his Wiggenweld Potion. As he had been warned, the teachers had thrown the first years right in at the deep end now they were back from the holidays. Albus rubbed his eyes and stifled a yawn as he bottled up his potion.

Across the table, Bertie was having trouble pouring out his thick concoction into a bottle, and it was giving out the most horrid stench. Rose held her fingers firmly over her nose as she gave him a hand, with her own potion having been bottled up for several minutes already.

Marlowe came round and collected their potions up with no comments given to anyone. The class packed away their equipment and slowly filed out of the classroom. Albus hung back in the corridor. The other Gryffindors walked past him, all having their own conversations and not paying Albus any attention. Bertie and Rose were the last out, having a hushed conversation between themselves. Bertie smiled at Albus, prompting Albus to raise the corners of his mouth for a split second before he peered over them and back into the classroom. Rose shot him a disappointed scowl, which Albus noticed, but thought little of.

Soon the slicked-back hair and pointed nose of Scorpius Malfoy appeared from the doorway. He gave Albus a curt nod and the pair set off down the corridor.

“Good Christmas?” asked Albus, as they climbed the stairs out of the dungeons.

Scorpius shrugged, “Same old. We don’t have many people who come round you see, so it’s just me, my parents and grandparents. You can imagine the conversations they have…”

Albus decided not to pry any further and instead turned his attention to the book. He made sure no one else was in earshot before speaking.

“Did you find anything out about what the book might be?”

Scorpius shook his head, “Nothing, sorry. How about you?”

“Nothing about the book, but I learned some interesting things about Marlowe”

“Oh?” asked Scorpius, with a raised eyebrow.

Albus paused momentarily to let a group of Hufflepuff girls pass by, “Apparently, he spent a lot of time studying in the Library”

Scorpius snorted, “That’s it? I think we could’ve worked that out for ourselves!”

“Let me finish!” snapped Albus, “According to Teddy, everyone was expecting him to get a big job in the Ministry, they were shocked when he decided to become a teacher”

“Interesting, I suppose, not sure it tells us much though”

“You don’t think it’s odd then?”

Scorpius shrugged, “It wouldn’t be the first time a talented wizard decided to become a teacher at Hogwarts”

They reached the library and peered inside. It was surprisingly busy, lots of essays had clearly been left until the last minute after the holidays. They eventually found the quietest corner and pulled out various notebooks.

“So, where do we even start?” said Scorpius

The truth was that Albus truly had no idea where to start. His research before Christmas had come up with very little, and even after what Teddy had told him, he was still struggling for answers. He leaned back in his chair and looked aimlessly around the room, hoping that something would give him a bit of inspiration.

Scorpius sighed, “Guess we don’t have anything then” he slapped the desk, causing a couple of nearby second years to jump and glare at them. He ignored this and lowered his voice, “We need a different approach, we’re not going to find anything about the book in here”

“Why not?” asked Albus

“Because we need something a bit more than ‘blank book’ to go on. We’ll be stuck in here for years trying to find anything relevant”

“Hmm, fair point. What do we do then?”

Scorpius sat there for a couple of minutes, deep in thought. At last, he sat bolt upright and leapt out of his seat.

“Where are you going?” cried Albus after him, but he was already striding down the aisle and out of sight.

He soon returned, dropping a tall stack of old Daily Prophet’s on the desk. He divided them up into two piles and shoved one in front of Albus.

“Look through these for any mention of Marlowe” he said, as he started to look through his own pile.

“What do you mean? What is all this anyway?”

Scorpius replied without looking up, “They’re all from the year Marlowe graduated Hogwarts, I thought there might be a mention of him somewhere. Teddy did say that he was a straight ‘Outstanding’ student, didn’t he?”

Albus nodded slowly, “Yeah, but why will looking through these help?”

Scorpius gave him a look that suggested Albus was being slow on the uptake, “The Daily Prophet is always on the lookout for the next genius, they like to predict who will become Minister for Magic in the future”

“Right, so we just need to read through every single one of these then…”

Scorpius opened up the paper in his hands and scanned it, thoroughly, “Better get a move on, Potter!”

As the hours passed and the sky turned from warm orange to dark blue, the pair had trawled through half of the papers that were stacked in front of them and found very little. Knowing that they would soon be chucked out of the library by Madame Pince, they decided to look through just a couple more.

Albus stretched his arms above his head and let out a long yawn. Scorpius had taken the papers they’d been through away, leaving him by himself. He turned the page of his last paper for that day before lazily reading through it. He absentmindedly traced the image of an owl, that had clearly been carved into the wall by a bored student, as he read through. Just as he was about to move on past the story, his eyes were drawn to a particular, short, article.

_‘ **Whizz Wizard Tipped for Success**_

_One student has been the talk of Hogwarts following the release of N.E.W.T results yesterday. Septimus Marlowe, a recent graduate of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, was notified of his truly Outstanding results. Mr Marlowe achieved O’s across the board, including in the rarely studied subject of Alchemy. Hogwarts Headmaster, Professor Julius Selbit, commented “We are exceedingly proud of Septimus for achieving these results. I predict a long and successful career ahead of him_

_When asked about his future plans, Mr Marlowe commented: “My ambition is to expand on our knowledge and leave a lasting legacy in the world of magical research”_

_Mr Marlowe will certainly have the eyes of the wizarding world upon him as he pursues this noble ambition._

  * _Ian Gibble – Education Correspondent’_



Albus scanned the story twice more, just to make sure he had read it all correctly, his heart pounding in his chest. As soon as Scorpius returned, Albus shoved the article in his face and forced him to read it.

Scorpius let out a long breath and finally spoke, “We finally have something” he grinned, “Not much, sure, but it is something”

Albus nodded and took back the paper, “I think it’s more than something. We didn’t know that he studied Alchemy, I think that tells us a lot”

“You need top marks at O.W.L to study Alchemy” said Scorpius, rubbing his chin, “I wonder how many people have actually studied Alchemy at Hogwarts over the years, it can’t be many”

“What about this bit, where he talks about ‘expanding on our knowledge’?” asked Albus, pointing it out.

Scorpius shrugged, “Could be anything”

Albus pondered this for a moment and read the paper again, “What if the book is something to do with alchemy?” he suggested, “If nothing else, it gives us a place to start”

“Agreed, we’d be stupid to waste this lead” Scorpius yawned, “We should get out of here though, don’t want Professor Marlowe to get a whiff of what we’re doing”

There was a sudden cough from behind, startling the pair into silence.

“I thought I’d find you here”, a curt voice said

Albus turned around to be greeted with the freckled face of Rose Weasley, “Oh, it’s just you” he said exhaling deeply

Rose raised an eyebrow, “Expecting someone else? Like Professor Marlowe, for instance?”

Albus opened his mouth to speak but stopped when he saw the annoyed look on Rose’s face. She was stood with her hands on her hips, her head tilted and lips thin.

“I heard what you were saying, and I just want to tell you that you’re being completely ridiculous”

Albus rolled his eyes, “I don’t know what you’re talking about…” he said, though not very convincingly.

Rose tutted, “Don’t play dumb with me, Albus. You’re being incredibly stupid” she glared at Scorpius, “Both of you!”

Scorpius looked offended, “I haven’t said anything”, he scowled at her, “What are you even doing here?”

“Looking for Albus, actually” she snapped, puffing her chest out and staring down Scorpius, “Would you leave us so we can have a talk?”

Scorpius’s eyes flicked between her and Albus before he inhaled deeply and pushed his stationary into his bag. He gave Albus a small farewell wave and quickly exited the library.

Not turning around to watch him leave, Rose sat herself down opposite Albus and glared at him. Her brown eyes penetrated his own green ones, fixing him with a look that suggested he’d done something very wrong, though he didn’t have a clue what.

“What on earth are you doing?” she asked with a scowl.

“What?”

Rose’s nostrils flared, “It sounds to me like you’re accusing a teacher of doing something untoward”. She spoke as if the very idea of a teacher doing something wrong was completely absurd.

Albus narrowed his eyes, “I’m not accusing anyone of anything”

“That’s not what it looks like to me! You’ve been sat in here for ages looking for the tiniest clue!” her voice rose, “What on earth would your Dad say if he found out about this?”

“I don’t care!” Albus snapped, getting slightly annoyed at Rose, “What I do with my time is none of your business, so just drop it, Rose!”

“You’re going to get yourself expelled if you’re not careful!” Rose growled, her nostrils flaring.

“We won’t because we’re not doing anything wrong”

With a derisive laugh, Rose replied, “You’ll forgive me if I don’t believe you. Believe it or not, I don’t want you getting expelled, so just drop whatever stupid ideas you have in your head” she lowered her voice, “And if Malfoy has been putting you up to it, well you’d better get rid of him too…”

Albus opened his mouth to respond, but the shock of Rose’s words had rendered him speechless. Was she really telling him to drop Scorpius as his friend? And what was all this about calling him ‘Malfoy’? He decided that continuing the conversation would just make things worse, so he looked at her silently.

Rose continued to glare at him, but she seemed to calm down slightly. After what seemed like ages, she finally opened her mouth to speak, “Tell me Albus, is it possible for you to have more than one friend at a time?”

Albus stared at her blankly, “Err, yes?”

Rose snorted and folded her arms, “Doesn’t look like it”

“I know you don’t like Scorpius but-“

“This has nothing to do with _him_!” Rose snapped. The venom in her voice took Albus by surprise, “You’ve obviously completely forgotten about someone else”

Albus bit his lip and tried to decipher what exactly Rose was talking about. She clearly noticed this, as Rose raised her voice slightly.

“Bertie has been feeling completely alone for months! Ever since it slipped out that you had that detention, you’ve been spending all your time feeling sorry for yourself! You’ve barely given him the time of day; you have no idea how lonely that’s made him feel!” She stopped to take a breath, her face had gone red with anger, it was like she had been bottling these feelings up for some time.

Albus stared at the desk in silence. The silence in the room now felt suffocating. Though he wasn’t looking at them, Albus could still feel Rose’s eyes digging into him again. Why did she have to make him feel so guilty?

“I..I’m sorry” said Albus quietly, still staring at the desk, “I didn’t realise he-“

“Didn’t realise?!” cried Rose, half laughing, “You’d have to be blind to not see how he’s been lately”

Albus finally looked at her, “I’m sorry!” he repeated, “I know I’ve been awful to be around, but you have no idea what it’s been like for me”

Rose slapped her hands on the desk, “For you? Oh boohoo, you got a detention! You brought this all on yourself, whereas Bertie has just been left alone through no fault of his own. I’ve been doing my best to cheer him up, but you’re supposed to be his closest friend!”

Albus looked away in shame. Rose was completely right, Bertie had been trying to start conversations with him for weeks, but he’d just turned away. “I’ll talk to him and apologise in person, I’ve been an idiot”, he said finally.

“Yes, you have” said Rose, scowling, “He’s at Hagrids, he spends a lot of time down there now”

Albus nodded and packed his bag before silently leaving the library. He quickly made his way out of the castle and into the dimming evening light. The wind was cold and he wrapped his cloak around him more tightly as he walked across the grounds towards the edge of the Forbidden Forest, where he was soon greeted by the ramshackle hut that was home to Hagrid. Albus peered inside, where he could see Hagrid’s large frame silhouetted inside. Taking a deep breath, Albus rapped his knuckles on the door three times.

The door creaked open, and Hagrid was now standing before him. He looked down at Albus, a warm smile on his face.

“Long time no see, Albus” he said with a chuckle, “What can I do for ya?”

Albus bit his lip, “I…I’m here to see Bertie, is he in there?”

Hagrid nodded and stepped to one side. Albus looked into the hut and saw Bertie sitting on one of the ragged armchairs, a large cup of tea in his hand. A grey lump was curled up on Bertie’s lap, Patch had clearly grown since the last time Albus saw him.

“Can I come in?” asked Albus

Hagrid smiled and said, “O’ course!”, and he beckoned him inside.

Within the light of Hagrid’s hut he could see Bertie more clearly. He was gently stroking Patch and staring into space. Albus gave a small cough; Bertie turned to face him, his face blank.

“Hello…” he said quietly

Albus slowly sat down in a battered armchair and starred at Bertie, who was no longer looking at him and was instead more focused on Patch.

“How are you?” asked Albus, awkwardly

Bertie shrugged, “Same old”

Albus glanced around the room and eventually found Hagrid, who was fiddling with the kettle. He gave Albus a curt nod and a reassuring smile.

“I’ve been a complete idiot” said Albus, finally, “A total, massive, idiot”. He looked at Bertie, to gauge his reaction, but he was still sat there starring at the floor. “I’ve been an awful friend and, quite frankly, you deserve better. He felt a slight lump in his throat. “Can we start over? I want us to be friends Bertie, you’re the only one in Gryffindor who’s actually given a damn about me recently and I’ve just completely ignored you. I’ll be much better tha-“

“Stop!” cried Bertie, cutting him off. He looked up at Albus, his own eyes slightly red and puffy. “Stop it, I hate it when you get all self-loathing like that” he forced a smile.

Albus looked at him blankly, but was eventually able to find a grin in return, “Sorry” he chuckled, “I guess that’s the best place for me to start then”.

“It’s not good for you, you know?” Bertie continued, “Being that sad and angry all the time. You know I don’t care about how many detentions you’ve got, or how many points you’ve lost. It doesn’t matter what Matt says otherwise, I’m never going to hate you for it”. He let out a smile, “You’re my best friend”

The pang of guilt that Albus felt was nearly indescribable, it felt like he’d just been punched in the stomach by several large trolls. Despite what a terrible friend Albus had been, Bertie was still there for him. There was no way for Albus to ever truly repay that loyalty, but he decided that it was better to start doing it right away. He offered his hand out to Bertie, who blinked a couple of times before shaking it. It felt more than a little bit silly, but Albus thought it was the best way to make a fresh start with him.

“I don’t deserve you as a friend, Bertie” he said

Bertie looked taken aback, but he quickly regained his composure. He grinned and turned to Hagrid, who was blowing his nose into a huge handkerchief.

“Sorry” he sniffed, “I’m just ‘appy you’re back to normal”

“Normal?” asked Albus

Hagrid stuffed the hanky into his pocket and sniffed, “I’ve ‘ardly seen yer all year. Then Bertie keeps comin’ down to talk to me, says how you’ve been sulking by yerself”. He came over and placed a massive hand on Albus’ shoulder, looking at him more seriously, “You shouldn’t be forgettin’ who yer friends are, understand?”

Albus nodded, “I know, I won’t”

Hagrid smiled and patted his shoulder, “Good to hear” he glanced out of the window and out at the now much darker grounds, “You two better be off, you don’t want to be caught wanderin’ around after dark”

Albus jumped up, startling Patch, who barked at him, “Sorry!” said Albus, quickly giving him a quick pat on the head. He looked at Bertie, who had just drunk the final dregs of his tea, “We should go”

Bertie stood up, “Thanks for the tea, Hagrid”

“Anytime” he said, “You two better come and see me soon, it’s been too long since we all had tea together”

Albus smiled at him, “Don’t worry, we will. I’ll drag James and Rose down too!” 

“Looking forward to it already!” Hagrid glanced out of the window, “Better get a move on” he said.

Albus and Bertie gave him a farewell wave and left the hut. They practically sprinted into the entrance hall, their damp shoes skidding over the stone floor as they came to a halt. Fortunately, they were not the only students walking around the castle. Some had clearly finished their dinner late and were only just making their way back to their common rooms. Relaxing slightly, the pair paused to catch their breath before continuing up the stairs, following a group of chatty Ravenclaw girls.

“What have you been up to all this time?” asked Bertie, as they passed through the Charms corridor.

Albus lowered his voice, “I’ll tell you later, when there are fewer people around”

They soon reached the Gryffindor Common Room, which was quieter than usual; the first day of term was always one that made people tired. The pair settled themselves in the soft armchairs in front of the fire, a rare treat given how often they were taken. Albus looked around and made sure no one was listening to them, then he told Bertie everything. He told him about Marlowe, and the book; about Scorpius; about what Teddy had said. Bertie hung on his every word, only interrupting to ask Albus to repeat things he misheard. By the time Albus had finished his story, the common room was completely deserted, and the fire had long died down to embers.

“What do you think?” asked Albus, uncertainly.

Bertie thought for a few moments but soon replied, “I think it sounds interesting”

“Interesting?”

“Of course,” Bertie lit up, “Hagrid was telling me how your Dad used to run around investigating teachers and things! Seems right that you’re doing the same”

Albus gave a small smile, “Just don’t mention this to Hagrid though, he might not approve”

Bertie nodded, “I won’t” he let out a long yawn, “Are you and Scorpius going to be doing any more research?”

“Probably, are you offering to help?

Bertie looked at him hopefully, “If you’ll have me”

“I’d love you to help” Albus grinned. “I have to admit though, I didn’t think you’d be up for it”

“Why not?”

Albus gave him a wry smile, “Well, you’re not exactly Mr Rulebreaker…”

Bertie laughed, “I suppose not!” He looked into the dying embers of the fire, “I just think it might be fun”

“I’m sure it will,” said Albus, “We just need to make sure no one finds out what we’re up to, don’t want to risk getting expelled!”

Bertie let out a cough that Albus suspected was covering up a yelp at the possibility that they might be kicked out of the school if they were caught. He rubbed the back of his neck and continued to look into the fire.

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that” he said quietly before letting out a long yawn.

With a final stretch, they stood up and made their way up to the dormitory. Everyone else was already asleep, so they silently got changed into their pyjamas and climbed into bed. Albus couldn’t wipe the smile off his face as he closed the curtains around him. He had ended his day in a much happier place than where he’d started it.


	12. Chapter Twelve: The Midnight Encounter

#  **Chapter Twelve: The Midnight Encounter**

Where are you up to?” Albus asked Bertie, without looking up from his lunar calendar.

Bertie counted the boxes on his own, “April. Are we sure there weren’t any in February?”

Albus shrugged and filled in another box, “I’m pretty sure the one that would’ve been in February is actually the one that’s in the first week of March, that makes sense, right?”

Bertie didn’t get a chance to answer before a stray Filibuster Firework flew across the room and knocked over his inkwell, spilling ink all over the table. Fortunately, he was able to grab his lunar calendar before it got messy.

“Sorry!” came the cry from the other side of the room.

There was a party atmosphere in the common room. The day before, Gryffindor had thrashed Hufflepuff in the Quidditch, three-hundred-and-sixty points to twenty. They were now in pole position to win the Quidditch Cup for the second year in a row. Caprice Flynn, the Gryffindor captain, had been so pleased with her team’s performance that she had organised half a feasts worth of food to be brought up from the kitchens.

With the party spilling over into the early hours of Sunday morning, most of the Gryffindors were still in bed. The only people who were sat down in the common room were Albus, Bertie, and a group of fifth years.

Albus glared in the direction of the fifth years as he scooped up his own homework to keep it from getting ruined by ink.

“Did they really have to let that off?” he said, furiously dabbing the carpet with a spare bit of cloth.

Bertie pulled out his wand, “Hold on Albus, let me try something”. He cleared his throat and pointed his wand at the black stain. “ _Scourgify!”_ he said. The stain was suddenly covered in a thick layer of soapy bubbles. They quickly dissipated, removing any sign of the ink on the carpet and table. Bertie smiled, surprised that it had worked.

“Where did you learn that one?” Albus asked, impressed.

Bertie pocketed his wand and placed his homework back on the desk, “Professor Flitwick said that I should give it a go”

Albus smiled, “Must be nice that Flitwick thinks you’re advanced enough to learn it, I’m still struggling with the Mending Charm!”

“I can help you out with it if you want? It’s the least I can do after you gave me those Knockback Jinx pointers in Defence Against the Dark Arts last week.”

Albus was incredibly pleased that he had repaired his friendship with Bertie. They had picked up right where they’d left off, and had spent more time talking to each other in the last month than they had ever done before. As much as anything else, Albus was just happy to have another person to talk to in the common room. The fact that Bertie was now back talking to him had encouraged the others to do the same. He’d been able to have a full conversation with Sophie King and Amy Barnes in Herbology as they harvested Puffapods. He and Leon Newland were now happily discussing the Quidditch season every week, though he had to avoid him after the Falmouth Falcons put fifteen goals past the Chudley Cannons the previous weekend. Albus was also relieved that Rose had finally gotten over her anger with him, and was now helping him remember dates of endless Goblin rebellions.

The only issue remaining was Matt Bingham. He was still taking every opportunity to remind him about all the points he’d lost, and doing so with increasing slyness. Every so often he would shoot a comment at him, even after those moments where Albus actually won Gryffindor some points. Albus had been ignoring the barbed comments, he was just happy that things were starting to get back to normal for him.

Bertie checked his watch and gasped, “Al, we’re supposed to be meeting Scorpius in ten minutes!”

They quickly vacated the common room and made their way downstairs, towards the Charms corridor. After taking a quick detour through a hidden passage to dodge Peeves the Poltergeist, they arrived at a very worn looking door. Bertie knocked at it a couple of times before pushing it open. They arrived in a small, dusty, classroom. Scorpius was stood next to one of the ancient-looking desks, piles of books all around him.

Bertie closed the door and muttered _“Colloportus”._ The door clicked as it locked.

Scorpius raised an eyebrow at them, “Bit late?”

Dropping his bag onto an empty desk, Albus sighed, “Finishing off some Astronomy homework. Been able to get anything done?”

Scorpius shook his head, “Not really. I’m telling you, we’ve hit a dead-end”. He picked up a heavy-looking book from the floor and dropped it on the table. It landed with a great ‘thud’ and nearly shook the desk to pieces. “I’ve read through this whole thing, nothing in here matches up with anything we know about that stupid book!”

Albus scratched his head, “Not great then…”

“Not exactly” sneered Scorpius, “We’re never going to find anything out about that book by trying to research it”

Bertie perched himself on a desk, “If there’s nothing about it in that book, then it’s almost certainly even older!”

“How? This was published in 1132!” he tapped the heavy leather cover of the book.

Albus stifled a laugh, “So we’re looking for a book that’s older than any history book we know of, but is also obscure enough to not be included in any reference guide from the time” he sighed, “I agree with Scorpius, we’ve hit a dead end.

The truth was that they’d been at a dead-end for weeks, they had just been too proud to admit it until now. Despite all the trips into the library, and despite finding the most unused classroom they could to have their private meetings in, they had found absolutely nothing about the book. The limited knowledge that it might be about Alchemy or some other obscure branch of magic, had turned up nothing. The only reason they continued to meet up was that, quite frankly, they enjoyed each other’s company. Bertie and Scorpius were glad to finally be talking to each other, as they had barely done so since that first Potions lesson.

Scorpius let out a long sigh, “What on earth do we do now then?”

Neither of the others had an answer, but Albus thought of something, “The only way we’re ever going to find out about that book, is by actually getting hold of it”

“Are you mad?” asked Scorpius

“How else are we supposed to learn anything?” Albus retorted

Scorpius groaned and rested his head on his hand, “It’s completely mad, he carries it around with him all the time!”

“I never said I had a plan!” insisted Albus, “I was just putting the suggestion out there”

Scorpius tutted and scrunched his fist up, “Have we just completely wasted our time with all this?”

The other two looked at each other because the honest answer was starting to look like yes.

Bertie stepped forward and gave a small smile, “We’ve been meeting up every week to do research, maybe we should just take a couple of weeks off, get our heads straight”

“Yeah, that might help,” said Albus, before looking hopefully at Scorpius, “Let’s go and sit outside, relax for a bit. What do you think?”

Scorpius pondered this for a moment before replying, “I suppose so…”. His shoulders sagged and he went to gather up the books he had laid out, “Some of these need to go back to the library, can you give me a hand?”

Between them, they were able to bring the dozen or so books they’d borrowed back up to the library. Madam Pince scowled at them as they dumped the piles of heavy books onto her desk. She made them all stand there until she had checked for the slightest sign of damage, and almost seemed disappointed when she failed to find any.

Finally released from her clutches, the trio made its way down the staircase and into the grounds. The air was pleasantly mild, with a nice cool breeze running down the glens. Spring was definitely not too far away. More and more students were spending time outside, with many gathered in the Transfiguration Courtyard chatting, playing Gobstones, or finishing off homework.

They found a spare patch of grass near an old tree and sat down around it. Albus laid down on his back, staring up at the fluffy white clouds, he closed his eyes and inhaled the fresh air.

“I don’t know about you lot, but I feel like my head is clearing already,” he said

Bertie, who was leaning against the tree, nodded, “Yeah…” he tailed off. He’d spotted Rose Weasley walking across the courtyard, a book clamped to her chest.

“Hello there,” she said when she got closer to them, “Having a good day?”

Bertie nodded, “Just enjoying the weather”

Rose smiled at him and Albus, who had given his cousin a small wave of greeting. Her eyes fell on Scorpius, and her expression immediately hardened. She whipped her ponytail behind her, “I’m just going to get some lunch, would you like to join me?”, she directed this exclusively at Albus and Bertie.

“Err, maybe in a minute,” said Albus, taken aback, “We were just taking a break out here”

Rose fixed him with a knowing scowl and tutted at him, “Not doing anything completely stupid, are we?”

“Of course not!” said Albus, “We’re allowed to meet up for a chat”

Rose sighed, “Yes, of course”. She glanced at Scorpius, who was staring at her, “Hello” she said shortly through thin lips.

Scorpius nodded, “Afternoon”

Rose immediately turned back to the other two, “I’m heading off, feel free to join me”. With that, she walked straight out of the courtyard.

Albus sat up and watched her disappear inside the castle, “What’s up with her?”

“She doesn’t seem to like me very much…” said Scorpius, who was also watching her go.

Bertie looked surprised, “Why not?”

“No idea” he sighed, turning his head upwards, “Don’t worry about it though, I’m quite used to people not liking me at this point”. He stood up and wiped a few blades of grass off his trousers. “I’m going to grab some lunch and finish off that Lunar Calendar for Astronomy, I’ve barely started it”.

“We can help you out with it!” said Bertie

But Scorpius shook his head, “I’m fine thanks”. He walked off into the castle, leaving Albus and Bertie staring at each other in confusion.

“He’s not ok, is he?” said Bertie, finally.

“Doesn’t look like it” said Albus, darkly, “Honestly it’s a little bit rich of Rose to get annoyed at me not talking to you, when at the same time she’s being all cold with Scorpius” Albus sighed, “I guess I could talk to her, but…”

Bertie shrugged, “I think it’s going to take more than that to solve it” he lowered his voice before continuing, “It looks like it’s bothering him though,

Albus gave a grim smile and looked away. He thought back to the words that his Uncle Ron had said on Platform 9 ¾ all those months ago _“Don’t get too friendly with him though, Rosie”._ He knew that Ron had been joking, but even so, perhaps Rose had taken it more seriously than he intended

“I don’t know” he sighed, “Come on, let’s get something to eat”

*

That night, Albus woke up with a start. Matt Bingham had rolled over in his sleep and knocked an empty metal jug onto the floor. Incredibly, this had not woken anybody else up. Albus rubbed his eyes and looked at his watch, it was just after one o’clock. He glanced out of the window and saw a clear sky lit up by a bright full moon, a light breeze was moving the trees below ever so slightly. With a yawn, Albus rolled onto his back stared up at the ceiling, counting the spiders amongst the rafters. The earlier talk about the book was still fresh in his mind, he wasn’t prepared to give up on it so easily, despite what he had said.

He spent a few minutes trying to get back to sleep, but his racing mind made this impossible. With a frustrated sigh, Albus tiptoed onto the stone floor and quietly opened his trunk to grab a book to read. He reached in and fumbled around looking for something. His hand brushed something light and soft, causing him to stop. ‘Of course, he thought to himself. He pulled out the soft fabric and held it out in front of him. It was his Dad’s invisibility cloak, his Christmas present. Albus had yet to find a chance to try it out and, in truth, he had almost forgotten that he had it. It had been sat at the bottom of his trunk ever since he had got back to school at the start of term.

Albus looked around the room, making sure that everyone else was definitely asleep. This would be the best chance he’d have to try the cloak out. He threw on his dressing-gown and slippers, taking care not to make too much noise. After stuffing his wand into his pocket, he made his way downstairs into the common room stopping just beside the portrait hole.

He was on the brink of throwing the cape over himself when the tiny voice in the back of his head made him pause for a moment.

"If you go out there and get caught, everyone will stop talking to you again", it whispered.

Albus considered this for a second but decided that the cloak made this a very remote possibility. He threw it over his head and took his first tentative steps beyond the portrait of the Fat Lady.

Everything looked slightly cloudy when looking through the cloak, but this didn’t slow Albus down in any way. He walked briskly passed snoring portraits and the odd ghost that floated by. Nearly Headless Nick almost gave him a heart attack as he suddenly appeared through a wall, humming a tune. However, it seemed that the cloak worked, as Nick didn’t acknowledge Albus at all.

Albus had no plan for what he wanted to do whilst under the cloak, he was just hoping to clear his head and return to Gryffindor Tower ready to fall asleep again. The castle was especially cold at night, and he was pleased that he had put his dressing gown on.

All of a sudden though, Albus was struck by inspiration. The book. If he could go down the dungeons and break into Professor Marlowe’s office, there was a slim chance that he might’ve been able to find it. He stood still, running through the scenario in his head. If he pulled it off and returned to the tower unnoticed, no one would be any the wiser. However, should he be caught both out of bed and stealing from a teacher, there was no way he wouldn’t be expelled. Eventually, Albus decided to go down the dungeons. If there was a chance to get in there, he would try to take it. The thought of finally getting his hands on the book was too tantalising a prospect to miss.

The dungeons were even colder at night than the rest of the school. He shivered his way down through the damp, green, passageway towards the Potions classroom. He came to the final junction and went to turn left when he suddenly heard a cold voice.

“You’re not being as subtle as you think you are…”

Albus’ heart skipped a beat and he froze. Surely, he hadn’t been spotted? He slowly looked around him, but there was no one else there. He stood still and listened.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”. The voice was different this time, higher-pitched, and nervous sounding. It was coming from down the corridor towards the Potions classroom; Albus gulped and poked his head around the corner.

The second voice belonged to Professor Marlowe, he was stood up against the wall, the book held behind his back. Albus couldn’t help but notice that his legs were shaking.

However, it was the owner of the first voice that shocked Albus. Standing tall over Marlowe was the muscular, pale, bald Professor Constantine. He was looking down at Marlowe and staring at him with his dark eyes, his expression very neutral.

“You know full well what I’m talking about, Septimus,” he said cooly, “I would advise you to give up your pursuits”

Marlowe’s mouth went thin and he pulled himself up straighter, trying to get level with Constantine, “My ‘pursuits’, Dario?”

Constantine stared straight at Marlowe and let out a small chuckle, “Don’t play dumb with me. You haven’t escaped the attention of others with what you are attempting”

Albus could feel his heart beating ever harder, had Constantine noticed what he and the others had been doing? It didn’t feel like he could’ve possibly seen anything, such were the precautions that they had taken. He braved another step forward to not miss any more of their conversation.

“Wha-what are you talking about?” stuttered Marlowe, “I’m not doing anything out of the ordinary”

Constantine held out a hand, “Give it to me” he demanded

“Give you what, Dario?” Marlowe did his best to sound calm, but the slight quavering in his voice gave him away. “It’s just a notebook”

“I know it isn’t” there was a growing edge to his voice, “It is not something to be trifled with”

Marlowe stepped away and quickly slipped the book into the inside pocket of his robes. Constantine looked him squarely in the eyes and let out a sigh, seemingly resigned to not getting his hands on the book.

Albus watched as the two men sized each other up, his body tense as he waited for one of them to move. His mind was racing. Somehow, Constantine seemed to know what the book was, and he clearly thought it could be dangerous.

Constantine sighed, “The fact that you returned to Hogwarts just to investigate it..,” he shook his head in disbelief, “I never took you for a fool Septimus, why are you doing this?”

Marlowe stepped away from Constantine and slowly started to retreat up the passageway. Constantine followed, his eyes fixed upon him. Albus could now hear his heart beating in his ears as he tiptoed behind the pair, hanging on their every word.

“I am no fool” stated Marlowe, “I am trying to expand on our knowledge of magic, surely you can’t have a problem with that?”

“Give up now,” said Constantine, simply. “The risks are simply not worth it”

Marlowe suddenly raised his voice, “You are never getting your hands on it!” He stopped retreating and pulled his wand out, pointing it at Constantine’s heart.

Albus stopped dead in his tracks and held his breath. He watched them, wide-eyed.

After what seemed like forever, Constantine exhaled and looked down at the floor. “Are you trying to threaten me, Septimus?”. He spoke with the same calmness that Albus was used to, with no hint that he was in any danger.

Marlowe, by contrast, was shaking. The end of his wand was quivering in his hand, and Albus was worried that he might accidentally fire a hex at Constantine. Mercifully, he soon lowered his wand and pocketed it. He placed a protective hand over where the book was inside his robes and took another step back. This time, Constantine didn’t follow him and simply stood there watching.

“Trust me Septimus. It is a pointless endeavour”. If Albus wasn’t mistaken, he almost sensed a sadness in his voice now, as if he was desperate for Marlowe to not continue with whatever it was he was doing.

Marlowe didn’t stop walking and he soon disappeared into the gloom of the corridor. Constantine continued to stand there, staring after him. He shook his head and looked to the floor before he turned around and started to walked back down the corridor.

Albus held his breath as he walked past him. For a split second, he was certain that Constantine’s eyes fell upon him underneath the cloak, but he did not stop or say anything. It was only once Albus was sure he was out of earshot that he relaxed and took several deep breaths. If anything, he now had even more questions. Whilst he did briefly consider following Marlowe and trying to get his hands on the book, he instead chose to get back up to the common room as quickly as he could, not wanting to push his luck any further.

He rushed back up the stairs, only stopping to let Peeves pass by, the poltergeist was hopping around whistling merrily. The Fat Lady was sound asleep in her portrait by the time he finally reached it. Albus gently tapped on the frame a few times until she woke up.

She groaned and rubbed her eyes before looking around aimlessly, her face turning to a scowl. “Is this someone’s idea of a joke?” she screeched, “I do not appreciate being woken up!”

Albus shushed her, “You’ll wake up the whole castle!” he said through gritted teeth.

This did not have the effect Albus wanted. Rather than keeping quiet, the Fat Lady screamed, “Who’s there?! Is that you, Peeves, playing a prank? I will bring the Bloody Baron here right now!”

Albus spoke over her, “I’m not Peeves!” he said firmly, “Just let me in. _Nestingum”._ He hoped that speaking the password would calm the Fat Lady down, but she continued to look around with a sense of fear in her eyes.

“I must be dreaming. Hearing voices…” she spoke with a quavering voice.

The realisation his Albus. In all the excitement he’d completely forgotten that he was wearing the invisibility cloak. He hastily pulled it off, hoping that there were no teachers nearby to catch him out of bed.

“See, it’s just me,” he said calmly

The Fat Lady looked at him completely astounded, “Y-you?” she blinked twice but quickly became stern. “Don’t tell me you’ve been caught by a teacher again?”

“I haven’t,” said Albus, with a huff, “At least not yet, now let me in! _Nestingum!”_

At last, the Fat Lady seemed satisfied and the portrait swung open to reveal the very dark and very empty Gryffindor Common Room. He gave a quick word of thanks to the Fat Lady, confident that she wouldn’t rat him out to anyone. He climbed the stairs that led to his dormitory and quietly opened the door, taking care to not make it creak any more than he needed to. Fortunately, his housemates were dead to the world and he was able to climb into bed and catch whatever amount of sleep he could.

*

The next day Albus told Bertie and Scorpius to meet him once their lessons were finished for the day. The three of them walked up to the dusty classroom and closed the door behind them. Albus relayed what he had seen the previous night to them.

“Where did you get an invisibility cloak from?!” Scorpius stared at Albus in admiration.

Albus looked at him slightly stunned, his eyebrow raised, “Of all the things I just said, that’s the most important one?”

“Oh, right, sorry,” said Scorpius with a shake of his head to regain his composure, “Constantine you say? Do you really think he knows what’s going on?

Albus nodded, “He sounded really concerned and…angry”

“Do you think he knows what the book is?” continued Scorpius in a hushed tone

“I’m sure of it” Albus rubbed his head, “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, I’d never seen Constantine like that before, he was almost threatening Marlowe”

Scorpius shook his head, “I can’t imagine Constantine like that…”

“I know what I saw! He was desperate for Marlowe to give him the book and to stop researching it. It has to be full of powerful magic or something” Albus looked into the distance in thought.

“What makes you think that?” asked Bertie.

Albus pondered this for a second, “Professor Constantine is an expert on dark magic, right? He must know about the book because he’s researched it somewhere!”

Scorpius raised his arms in frustration, “Where?!” he exclaimed, “We’ve been looking for weeks and found absolutely nothing!”

“Well, he clearly learned about it somewhere!” snapped Albus, getting slightly frustrated that Scorpius didn’t seem to think this information was worth anything. “Where else is someone supposed to learn about this sort of stuff without doing research?”

“I don’t know!” replied Scorpius, raising his voice, “I’m just starting to think this whole thing is a complete waste of time!”

“Surely what I saw proves it wasn’t a waste of time?” Albus shouted

Bertie stepped between them and raised his hands, “Calm down you two” he said firmly. The pair looked at Bertie before sitting down in a couple of chairs. Bertie continued, “This doesn’t need to get heated, let’s just listen to what Scorpius has to say” he shot a rare firm look at Albus, who nodded shortly and looked at Scorpius.

After taking a deep breath, Scorpius spoke, “I’m worried that this is turning into something bigger than us. If Professor Constantine is involved then…” he tailed off.

“Then what?” asked Albus

“Then I think that book is full of dark magic. Very old dark magic, to be precise” Scorpius looked between the pair to gauge their reactions, but they just looked at him, wanting him to continue. “You’re right Albus, Constantine is an expert on dark magic, but do you ever think that he might be a bit too interested in it?”

Albus shrugged, “He’s your Head of House, you tell me”

Scorpius bit his lip, “Constantine keeps a lot of secrets, he wouldn’t even tell us where he was born, or when his birthday is, I don’t even know when he attended Hogwarts”

“What are you suggesting?” asked Albus, leaning forward.

“I’m just asking if you’ve stopped to consider that Constantine wants the book for his own purposes?”

Albus stared at him wide-eyed, “You’re joking, right? Just because Constantine is a private person doesn’t mean he wants to take the book and use it for dark magic”

He looked at the floor, “All I’m saying is that people who keep that many secrets will have some dark ones too…”

Albus could scarcely believe what he was hearing, “Professor Constantine is our best teacher!” he said, with a slight laugh, “Everyone I’ve spoken to speaks highly of him, including my Dad and Teddy. You can’t seriously be suggesting that he’s a dark wizard”

“You have to admit that it looks a bit suspicious, no?”

Albus looked at the floor. Admittedly the whole situation was a bit odd, how did Constantine find out about Marlowe having the book? And, more to the point, why had he been so insistent that Marlowe give the book up? Even so, Albus couldn’t believe that Professor Constantine had any devious intentions.

“Ok, I admit that it is a little bit suspicious, but there’s just no way he’s planning anything nefarious,” Albus said, in such a way that suggested he now considered the matter to be closed.

Scorpius spoke firmly, “Then tell me why he wants the book”

“I don’t know, and neither do you!” replied Albus

Bertie stood up again, “Honestly you two,” he said with a shake of his head, “We just need to plan our next move, are you going to try and find out more about the book, or Constantine?”

The trio thought about this silently for a few minutes, but it was Albus who first came up with an answer, “We need to get hold of the book”

“You’re joking?!” Scorpius exclaimed

Bertie looked wide-eyed and Albus, “There’s no way we’ll be able to get it!”

“I know it sounds mad but…“

“Sounds mad? It is mad!” Scorpius interrupted, “We’re talking about stealing something potentially dangerous from a wizard who may well be planning something dangerous with it, who is also trying to stop another wizard from taking it and also doing something dangerous with it!” The worlds flew out of his mouth at a million miles an hour.

Albus tried to calm him down, “Shh, you’ll give us away to the whole castle” he moved his chair closer to where Scorpius was sitting, “I’m not saying we just waltz into his office and steal it, that would be risky even with the invisibility cloak. We need a proper plan”

The other two stared at him blankly, before turning to each other and silently shrugging.

Bertie took a deep breath, “This sounds like a really stupid idea” his voice was quivering as he spoke, and he took a seat to prevent his legs from buckling underneath him.

“It is a mad idea,” said Scorpius before he gave Albus a wry smile, “Good thing I’m as desperate to find out what’s in that book as you are then”

Albus grinned, “It’s not too ‘big’ for us then?”

“Oh, it’s completely too big, but I’m far too stupid to say no to doing it,” said Scorpius with a nervous laugh, “What’s the worst that can happen anyway?”

The others decided not to answer that question, or they’d all decided that they couldn’t bear to think about the consequences should they get caught. Expulsion would surely be the outcome if anybody found out what they were up to.

“We’ll need to be subtle,” said Albus, breaking the silence, “We can’t take any risks”

Scorpius nodded, “Agreed. No point rushing into something like this. This is still going to end up being a really stupid idea though”

Having agreed to work on a plan for getting the book, the three of them went to the Great Hall for dinner, the excitement of their plan had made them all very hungry.

They waved Scorpius off once they made it to dinner, and he sat down at the end of the Slytherin table. Albus considered inviting him to join them at the Gryffindor table, but he figured that the others wouldn’t appreciate having a Slytherin at their table.

Albus and Bertie found a space next to Rose, her attention on a Transfiguration essay that she had made twice as long as Professor Mutati had asked them. She gave them a quick “hello” as they sat down, but her mind was on the ‘Theory of Switching Spells’.

Albus forked a couple of sausages onto his plate, before loading up on mashed potato and peas. He sliced up his sausage and started eating immediately, his stomach stopped rumbling to thank him.

Sat opposite Rose, was Sophie King, who was tucking into a risotto. She greeted them with a grin. “Hello, you two, good day?”

“Very,” said Albus. He was being truthful about this for once. “Yours?”

Sophie nodded, “Pretty good, that potions lesson took a lot out of me though”. She stuffed another spoonful of rice into her mouth and swallowed it before continuing, “Have you noticed that Professor Marlowe has been a bit, I don’t know, distracted recently?”

Albus looked at her, “You think so?”. Her observation was interesting to Albus, as he couldn’t think of a huge difference in him since the start of the year.

“He’s been acting very odd, he used to walk between all of us to offer advice on our potions, but since Christmas, I’ve barely seen him do that at all! Now he either walks around silently or just sits behind his desk not looking at us” She looked quizzically at Albus, “What do you think’s up with him?”

“Dunno” lied Albus quickly. He had a pretty good idea about what was up with Marlowe, but it interesting to think that his research into the book was now affecting him during lessons as well.

Sophie shrugged and turned to Bertie. Her eyes narrowed slightly, “Are you not hungry?” she asked, motioning to the empty plate in front of him.

“Hmm?” said Bertie before he shook his head and looked nervously at Sophie, “What? Oh, yes, I am”. He went bright red and quickly spooned a few pieces of broccoli onto his plate.

Sophie and Albus both looked at each other with confused expressions on their faces. Meanwhile, Bertie was shoving large bits of broccoli into his mouth with a shaking hand.

At this moment Rose looked up from her essay and asked Sophie a question, giving Albus a few moments to talk to Bertie.

“Are you ok?” he asked quietly, leaning towards him so the others couldn’t hear.

Bertie replied a little too quickly, “Of course” he said shortly.

Before Albus had a chance to answer, Rose had packed her completed essay away and was now looking to strike up a conversation with him. He leaned back from Bertie, who was looking into the middle distance away from him. His demeanour slightly surprised Albus, but he soon realised that Bertie’s nerves were down to the new plan to steal the book from Marlowe, and the potential consequences if something went wrong.


End file.
